Reminiscences of Our Travels

Happy New Year, everyone! It's been a hectic holiday season, and I'm pretty happy that it's over now, and things can get back to normal. I used this weekend to do a massive new year's cleaning overhaul, but I still have lots of work to do. Of course, I tackled the kitchen first, and now it is SPARKLING clean, just waiting for this new year's dishes to be cooked! There's quite a bit of stuff in my pantry, fridge and freezer that I really want to use up before I go shopping again, so yet again, we're in for a few days of creativity before I bring in any new ingredients. There's so many things that I have planned for this year, and I can't wait to start in on all of them. At the top of that list is continuing my culinary education through The Professional Chef, and we'll be coming up to recipes very soon. I'm still in the introductory portion of the book though. I have also started a small collection of my own creations that I can hopefully turn into a cookbook in the near future.

Tonight, however, I want to share a great recipe that I made right before the new year. It's called Crispy Chicken with Rye Bread, Mustard, and Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage, and I found it in Cooking in the Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes, a great book that I haven't had the opportunity to explore just yet. This is the first recipe I've made from it, and I was happy with the outcome. It had been on my current menu, but the day I was supposed to make it, I just wasn't really feeling it. But the next night, I convinced myself to make it, since I had thought it sounded good when I added it to the menu. The first step involved making my own breadcrumbs with a loaf of rye bread. I put the chunks of rye bread, sans crust, into a mini-food processor, and pulsed until I had an even consistency. I spread them out on a baking sheet, allowing them to dry out for about 2 hours, before using them. I also mixed them with some kosher salt and black pepper, as well as more caraway seeds.

I did some other things around the house while my breadcrumbs were drying out, but when I came back to the kitchen, I brought all my other ingredients together. I mixed some kosher salt and pepper into a couple cups of flour, in preparation for the breading process. I also got out a couple of eggs and lightly beat them. I lined the flour and egg up with the breadcrumbs, and turned to the chicken. I cleaned each thigh of most of the fats, and then sprinkled them with salt and pepper.

Once all of the ingredients for the main part of my meal were gathered, I set them aside so that I could time everything appropriately. I turned to the Sweet and Sour Cabbage recipe, so I grabbed my red cabbage and a red onion, along with some turbinado sugar and some kosher salt. I sliced the cabbage in to small ribbons, cut the onion in half and thinly sliced it, and added it to a pan with some vegetable oil. After adding the salt and sugar, I also added some cider vinegar and red wine vinegar, and allowed it all to steam in a covered pot for about 20 minutes. When the cabbage was ready, it's dark purple hue had turned into a beautiful magenta!

I breaded each chicken thigh by dipping it in flour, then egg, and finally into the rye bread crumbs. Each piece of chicken was then added to a hot pan, with vegetable oil, and I left them to cook until the breading had become crispy and browned, before flipping.

While the chicken was cooking, and the cabbage was simmering, I added some Dijon mustard and chicken stock to a small pot, and brought it to a simmer with a pinch of kosher salt. This made the sauce for the chicken. Everything came together at the same time, and I plated the meal. On the bottom, some sweet and sour red cabbage, topped with a couple of crispy chicken thighs, and finally topped with some of the mustard sauce. As the title of this blog suggests, this meal was quite reminiscent of our recent trip to Germany and the Czech Republic. The cabbage, as well as the caraway flavor in the breadcrumbs really brought me back, and inspired me to start thinking about our next trip. I don't know when it will be, or to where, but I know it will be amazing!

Stay tuned for great things to come in 2012! I am working on some more giveaways, as well as some other special features!