Dinner (Friday, July 19th, 2009)

So, I had the day off from work today, and, per usual, that means I cooked dinner. Lately I've been really into the idea of basing dinner around two items: a bread and a simply dressed salad of greens. I haven't made boneless skinless chicken breast (a perennial favorite) in a while, so I thought that would be a good choice. For a main veg, I decided to go with Brussels sprouts...not necessarily the most summery vegetable, but one that I particularly enjoy. Lately, I've been making bruschetta garlic bread from ciabatta loaf for the bread, but I didn't have any ciabatta handy today, so I decided to make my own grilled focaccia.

The first thing I did was make the dough for the focaccia bread.

• Water
• Yeast
• Olive Oil
• Flour
• Salt

I blended the ingredients, then let the dough sit for about two hours to rise.


While the dough was rising, I made the Brussels sprouts.

• Brussels Sprouts
• Red Onion
• Salt
  
• Olive Oil
• Red Pepper Flake
• Garlic

First, I boiled the trimmed and halved Brussels sprouts.


Then, I tossed the boiled and cooled Brussels sprouts with onions sauteed in garlic and red pepper flake.


The Brussels sprouts were finished, so I turned my attention back to the bread. This is what the focaccia dough looked like after about an hour.


I punched it down, kneaded it a bit, then let it rise for another hour or so. While that was happening, I went to work getting the chicken breasts ready.

• Chicken Breasts
• Lime Juice
• Vinegar
  
• Salt
• Pimenton
• Coriander
• Cumin (not pictured)
• Garlic (not pictured)
• Onions (not pictured)
• Goya Cilantro & Tomato Seasoning (not pictured)
• Tequila Lime Seasoning (not pictured)
  
• Olive Oil
• Agave Nectar

Here's what the chicken breasts looked like once they were in the marinade.


Once the chicken breasts were in the marinade, I punched down the focaccia dough again and divided it into two equal pieces. Then I rolled those two pieces into balls and let them hang out while I got the grill ready.



Right around this time Michael got home from school and he had some good news - he had been named Student of the Class for the class he had just finished that day. That makes nine SOC's for him since starting at this school about a year ago! That calls for a drink!

• DeChanceny Cremant de Loire
• Mathilde Cassis

I got this bottle of Cremant de Loire as a sample from work and had been meaning to drink it. I also have a big bottle of Cassis sitting around and thought that Kir Royales would be the perfect aperitif. I did try a little bit of the wine before adding the Cassis and I thought it was quite nice - it had good richness and ample fruit.

After a drink or two, the coals had gotten good and hot, so I dumped them into the grill. Then I flattened out the focaccia dough, gave it a little olive oil and salt and got it onto the grill




The grill was a little bit hotter than I anticipated (and the bread was perhaps a bit too thick), so the outside of the bread started to burn a little bit before the inside was fully cooked. No big deal, I just used a knife to scrape off most of the black on the outside of the bread and put it into a low oven to finish cooking while I made the rest of the meal.

I pulled the chicken out of the marinade and threw it on the grill.


When the chicken was done cooking, I took the bread out of the oven and topped it with some very thinly sliced onion and a little more olive oil and salt.


It would have been nice to do a bit more of an elaborate topping for the focaccia, but frankly I just didn't have the ingredients or the energy. The onion slices were very thin, so they wilted a little and flavored the bread - not perfect or fancy, but it worked in a pinch.

The last thing I had to do was make the simple salad of greens.

• Spring Mix
• Iceberg
• Lemon Juice
• Vinegar
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil

Dinner was served!


We paired the meal with the Bodegas Naia "Naia" Verdejo, a Spanish white wine made from the verdejo grape. I like to think of this wine as Spain's answer to White Burgundy - it has the textural richness and savory flavors of Chardonnay, but it is a little bit lighter on its feet and has slightly different aromatic qualities. It was a wonderful complement to the meal.


Here are my impressions on the food (going clockwise around the plate). The bread was good, but not great. It had that dense under seasoned thing going on that homemade yeast-leavened bread can have sometime, and as I already mentioned, the topping was a little lackluster. It was a passable addition to the meal, but I hope that my next effort is more successful. The Brussels sprouts were very good, if not somewhat undercooked. I sliced the onion a little bit thicker than I normally do and didn't cook them quite so long, and I thought those changes were very successful, but I do wish I had boiled the sprouts themselves for an additional minute or two. The salad was good, but I'm still trying to fine-tune the amount of dressing that goes on it - I feel like I have the tendency to slightly over dress it. The chicken breast, however, was practically perfect in every way. Seasoned and cooked just right, it is hard to beat the fresh, light, clean flavor of boneless skinless chicken breast in my book.


A piece of bread topped with some greens, a piece of chicken and maybe even a few of the onions from the Brussels sprouts made a perfect of bite of food. Wash it down with some Naia and you're in heaven!


Oops! Did I eat all that?!?!? Yeah, I did...and between you and me, I even went back for seconds of some! My membership in the Clean Plate Club remains untarnished!