Joining the Cooking Mamas: Assignment #1
Something about living in Paris inspires the chef in everyone. Not only have I started my own home-based cake and cupcakes business, I've also joined a group of 3 cooking mamas + 1 (me). 2 of the cooking mamas are fellow Asian women who moved to Paris with their European husbands and children. We met through a great group of Asian women who had been meeting socially once a month, and then we decided that this group was so meaningful to us that we volunteered to set up a Board, to keep the group going. We are now known as the Asian Women's Association of Paris (www.awa-paris.com), we have 80+ members and we keep growing with each new event.
So, now back to my assignment! As part of this group of Cooking Mamas, we are supposed to try 2 new recipes/menus a month. My first assignment was Paris Bresse (poulet de Bresse farci avec asperges) or Stuffed Bresse chicken with asparagus. Recipe here: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Stuffed-Bresse-Chicken-with-Asparagus
I only had this weekend to try the recipe, so I bought everything in a rush. The market I went to didn't have the acclaimed Bresse chicken, so I bought the best they had available (pictured above).
The recipe confused me as it asks for fava beans in Step 5, and yet they are not mentioned in the list of ingredients, so I just ignore it. In my many years of cooking, I've learned that most of the time you can improvise, and adjust this or that and still end up with a good meal (I can't say the same for baking though, which requires more precision!)
Another shortcut I took was to use baby artichoke hearts from a jar, because I only found large artichokes at the market. I added more beans (I used the Italian fagioli because I love their taste and velvety texture), because we love them and because and they went well with the copious amount of sauce.
Overall, the recipe was not too difficult to follow otherwise, because the chicken was basically roast chicken stuffed with the mixed veggies. What makes the whole dish special is the madeira-based cream sauce. Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of creamy sauces, which I find a bit too heavy, but this was a very tasty one.
My French husband, who considers himself a bit of a gourmand, and my 6-year old son liked it enough to finish the leftovers for lunch the next day, and that's saying something, because they're not crazy about eating the same thing 2 days in a row. (Yes, they are spoiled!)
Here's a photo of the completed dish:
So, now back to my assignment! As part of this group of Cooking Mamas, we are supposed to try 2 new recipes/menus a month. My first assignment was Paris Bresse (poulet de Bresse farci avec asperges) or Stuffed Bresse chicken with asparagus. Recipe here: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Stuffed-Bresse-Chicken-with-Asparagus
The recipe confused me as it asks for fava beans in Step 5, and yet they are not mentioned in the list of ingredients, so I just ignore it. In my many years of cooking, I've learned that most of the time you can improvise, and adjust this or that and still end up with a good meal (I can't say the same for baking though, which requires more precision!)
Another shortcut I took was to use baby artichoke hearts from a jar, because I only found large artichokes at the market. I added more beans (I used the Italian fagioli because I love their taste and velvety texture), because we love them and because and they went well with the copious amount of sauce.
Overall, the recipe was not too difficult to follow otherwise, because the chicken was basically roast chicken stuffed with the mixed veggies. What makes the whole dish special is the madeira-based cream sauce. Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of creamy sauces, which I find a bit too heavy, but this was a very tasty one.
My French husband, who considers himself a bit of a gourmand, and my 6-year old son liked it enough to finish the leftovers for lunch the next day, and that's saying something, because they're not crazy about eating the same thing 2 days in a row. (Yes, they are spoiled!)
Here's a photo of the completed dish:
And now to introduce my fellow cooking mamas:
Carmela:
Eva:
Cherie:
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