This page is from a wonderful book called A Child's Calendar by John Updike. The poems and illustrations capture perfectly the feeling of each month.
"Some days are fair, some days are raw."
March. A month where deciding what to have for dinner is sometimes a challenge.
I'm betwixt and between
on a meal at this time
An inspiring main course
is my plight.
I'm bored with
the casseroles,
chilis and stews,
But there's nary
a fresh green
in sight.
Here's one answer for a March meal.
It has the earthy comfort of mushrooms, the warmth of a red wine reduction, and the liveliness of a springtime vegetable with lemon.
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| Chicken "Barolo Chinato" with Mushrooms and Parsley Baked Potatoes with Rosemary Lemon-Butter Asparagus |
Barolo
Chinato (pronounced “key”nato) is an Italian dessert wine. For this chicken recipe, you can substitute marsala, port or sherry. I happened to have a bottle of this on hand that I had been saving since my visit to Italy in 2009. I first tasted it at a wonderful restaurant in the Piemonte region located in the Northwestern corner of Italy. This is the home of the fabulous wines, Barolo and Barbaresco, and the white truffle.
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| Ristorante Albergo "Miralanghe" in Guarene - Piemonte, Italy- |
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Here's our server, Anna, with her daughter Chiara.
They're holding a plate of truffles that their dog discovered that day.
|
Anna was a wonderful server and I told her so.
We ended up closing the place that night.
In fact, before we left, the chef, who was Anna's husband, invited us to have drinks on the terrace. Is this customary in Italy? Needless to say, I was thrilled. My favorite drink was the Chinato.The chef said that it was invented as a medicine and, for a long time, the only place you could buy it was at a pharmacy.
When we were leaving, he gave us two different bottles to take home. He handed me the Barolo Chinato.
In fact, before we left, the chef, who was Anna's husband, invited us to have drinks on the terrace. Is this customary in Italy? Needless to say, I was thrilled. My favorite drink was the Chinato.The chef said that it was invented as a medicine and, for a long time, the only place you could buy it was at a pharmacy.
When we were leaving, he gave us two different bottles to take home. He handed me the Barolo Chinato.
This is an adaptation
of the “Medallions of Veal” recipe that was featured in a Boston Kitchen Cookbook back in the 1970's.
1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into small pieces and pounded 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup flour
Salt & pepper
2 TB butter
1 TB olive oil
3/4 cup beef broth
3/4 cup Barolo Chinato (or port, sherry, or marsala wine)
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 TB finely chopped onion
fresh lemon
2 TB chopped parsley
Stir flour, salt & pepper in bowl. Coat chicken pieces
in mixture. Shake off excess. In a non-stick skillet, melt butter and add olive
oil. Place chicken in a single layer and sauté on both sides over medium-high
heat until lightly browned. Remove chicken pieces to serving platter; keep
remaining juices in pan. Return pan to medium-high heat, add mushrooms and onion and cook until
tender. Pour in broth and wine, stir, and bring to a boil. Let it boil for a minute until it begins to reduce. Add a fresh squeeze
of lemon. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Pour over chicken
and sprinkle with parsley.
4 large baking potatoes
olive oil
1 tsp. beef bouillon
salt & freshly ground pepper
fresh rosemary leaves
Rinse potatoes and slice them into rounds, about 1/8 inch thick. Drizzle olive oil into a large, shallow round dish - a quiche plate works well
– and add your first round of potatoes around the edge. Sprinkle each layer
generously with salt & pepper, and drizzle with a bit of olive oil.
Continue along towards the center until all the potatoes are placed. Add another drizzle of oil on
the top and sprinkle with 1 tsp. of beef bouillon and rosemary. Pour just a
little bit of water into the bottom of the dish to help keep the potatoes a bit
moist as they cook. Bake at 450 F for about 30 minutes or until tender. You may want to baste it toward the end to keep the potatoes from drying out.
1 lb. of thin asparagus spears
fresh lemon
1 TB butter
salt & pepper
Rinse the asparagus.Take a spear with one hand and, with the
other, bend the end of the spear until it breaks where it wants to. What you have left is a perfectly tender spear. There's no need to peel. Put
the asparagus in a skillet and add about 1/2 inch of water and some salt. Cover and cook
until asparagus is just tender. Remove spears from pan. Add salt, pepper,
butter and a squeeze of lemon juice.
