Family Dinner with JP

Given that two of the most popular recipes I've posted on the blog are the pickles and the fried chicken recipes, in hindsight this post seems almost inevitable. But no, yet again I turn to the pages of Bon Appetit for inspiration and recipe.  This pickle-brined fried chicken is a signature dish at Rose's Luxury, recently named the best new restaurant in the United States by Bon Appetit (woooo go DC!), and who am I to disagree? Pickles? Fried chicken? Yes please! So I made this once, and my friend Jess made it once as well. We compared some notes on the process, and in the end, I am adapting the recipe just slightly. Here's a statement I never thought I would make: go with chicken breast instead of thighs. I think this is an issue of expectation - when I bit into the amazing fried chicken, I wanted it to be like a chicken tender - juicy white meat. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like sipping a diet coke that turns out to be an iced tea. But I think I like my b...

Pepper Steak. Literally this means pepper steak. And, with all apologies to the French and to Mssr. Escoffier , the prototypical French cuisine (in the realm of steaks) follows a pretty basic formula: Good steak and rich sauce. Steak au poivre is no exception, though contemporary chefs often take a slight bent to the traditional style in order to jazz up this traditional fare. Steak in heavy sauce. NOW I've got your attention, eh? Barely, but I'm kind of awake. Steak what now? As usual, I start with my spirit animal, Julia Child. Not only is her base recipe for anything fantastic, but her instruction are incredibly explanatory and easy to follow. With all apologies to Mrs. Child, I also perused some other recipes online, and I discovered that these days, many steak au poivre recipes call for an amount of heavy cream in addition to the base sauce of cognac, broth, and butter. I still followed her instructions for the peppering and the cooking of the steaks though. ...