Put on Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue". Entertain yourselves with a chilled glass of something white - in this instance I should suggest something from Alsace - while you are cooking. Also, why not brown some walnuts in some olive oil and serve them with some warm baguette and gorgonzola? (Drain the oil!) These are marvelous things to consume while cooking and talking. Usually at our house the guests hang in the kitchen while the meal is being cooked. Oh, wait; you're waiting for the cooking instructions: Flour and then brown the chicken in butter in a large skillet. Remove to a covered stoneware or pyrex container, and put in the oven at 200 degrees. Add chopped shallots to the saucepan, adding more butter if necessary, and cook until translucent. Remove half of the shallots to the container with chicken, leaving the other half in the skillet. Add broth to skillet and reduce by half. Add a good pour of brandy, about "one-ah-two" at a medium tempo, and flame it off. (Be sure to call guests in for this bit.) Let reduce for a couple more minutes, then add the tomatoes and olives. Add and stir in sour cream one tablespoon at a time until the sauce is the consistency that appeals to you (about 3 tablespoons at our house). Add two or three good turns of fresh ground pepper, and a pinch of tarragon. (Important: A literal pinch here; just as much as you can hold between your index finger and thumb, and grind it up with your fingers as you are putting it in.) Add this sauce and the chicken and shallots to the pasta, which you will have somehow cooked to proper consistency while doing all of the above. Stir and serve. A good thing to serve with this is a nice, solid, kind of unripe pear, cut into long slices. If you core one pear and cut it lengthwise into twelve pieces, it should work great. If you can get a purplish Anjou pear, it makes the plate look racy as well. This should feed four people with normal appetites, or two teenagers. This dish goes well with Pinot Noir, so if I were serving you this, you would also have an Oregon Pinot like Cameron or Willakenzie, or a Burgundy. By the way, I can't recommend the Burgundies of Maurice Ecard too enthusiastically for this purpose. They are from Savigny-Les-Beaune, and they are affordable, excellent wines. P.S. If you try this, please drop me a line and let me know how it came out. Also tell me about which wines you selected. |