Cooking Class #1

Many years ago, I used to joke that I needed to marry a chef. At the time, this claim was in reference to my wheat allergy and I thought it would be AWESOME to have a chef in the house that could cook for me so that I didn't have to. Oh the irony!

Until recently, I had never asked Jet to teach me about cooking, I had never really cooked or even committed to cooking during our relationship and I had never felt the need to prepare food at home and would choose to eat out and make poor decisions when it came to what I ate. What I didn't realize when I joked about marrying a chef, was they don't want to come home and cook and really appreciate it when other people cook for them... even if they are being used as guinea pigs.

So I thought that with the new year, one of my resolutions was to tackle my fears. And one of my biggest? Cooking for my chef! Our first lesson together was braising and he taught me a few good tips:

• Pat dry your protein before you put it in the pan to brown it. The less water your meat has when it's added to the oil, the less it spits at you from the pan. Alternatively you can coat the meat in flour which also lessens spitting.
• The key to browning meat is to leave it alone. Give it time to get some good color before you start messing around with it and flipping it over.
• I mistakenly put the lid on when browning and created condensation which meant that when I removed the lid, the water hit the oil and I was again spat at! The trick is to leave the lid only partially on.
• Bone in -vs- boneless... bone in meat takes a little longer to cook to take this into consideration working out your cooking time.
• Season, season, season! Make sure that you season with salt and pepper as you go, and taste your food as you go so you know how to adjust your flavors.

So my braising recipes came from two sources: a recipe book of mine, and of course a "Jet Special".

Chicken with Tarragon
Easy Low-Carb

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon safflower oil
1 free range chicken (about 4 lbs) cut into 6-8 pieces
2 carrots, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
a sprig of thyme
2-3 sprigs flat leaf parsley
a bunch of tarragon
3 tablespoons sour cream
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

serves 4

Heat the butter and oil in a large saute pan with a lid. Add the chicken pieces and cook until brown, about 5 minutes. Work in batches if your pan is not big enough. Put the browned chicken pieces on a plate and season well with salt and pepper.

Add the carrots and shallot to the pan and cook, stirring for a minute or so. Return the chicken to the pan and add water to cover half-way. Add the thyme, parsley and a few sprigs of tarragon. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, strip the leaves from the remaining tarragon, chop them finely and set aside. Add the stems to the cooking chicken.

Remove the chicken from the pan and put in a serving dish. Remove and discard the tarragon stems.

Raise the heat and cook the sauce until reduced by half. Strain and return the saute to the pan. Stir in the sour cream and the chopped tarragon. Heat briefly (do not boil) and pour over the chicken. Serve immediately.

And here is my winning result! However, there are a few things I would change for this recipe:

1. Drain most of the fat from the pan after browning the chicken. I didn't use the oil and just used the butter, and the sauce was quite oily even at the end.
2. Add some extra simmer time if you are using bone in chicken.
3. After straining the sauce, add a little sauce to the sour cream - not the other way around. That way, if it separates it's with only a little of the sauce and you still have a lot to work with.
4. I halved the chicken quantity, but used the same herb quantity and it was very aromatic. 

My short rib verdict and recipe will be posted tomorrow!