Chicken Normandy

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2002

Prep Time:

20 min

Inactive Prep Time:

—

Cook Time:

20 min

Level:

Intermediate

Serves:

4 servings

Ingredients

• 6 ounces thick cut bacon, cut into 3/4-inch dice
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• Essence, recipe follows
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onions
• 1/2 cup Calvados
• 1 cup apple cider
• 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced red apples
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• Fresh chives, garnish

Directions

In a large, heavy saucepan, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp and the fat is rendered, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels. Drain off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat.

Season the chicken on both sides with Essence. Dredge in the flour to coat lightly, shaking to remove any excess. Add the chicken to the fat in the pan and cook over medium-high heat until golden brown on both sides and nearly cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Remove and cover to keep warm. Add the onions and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the Calvados and cook, stirring, to deglaze the pan. Simmer until reduced by half. Add the cider, bring to a boil and cook until reduced by half. Add the apples and cook, stirring, until tender, about 2 minutes. Add the cream and simmer until reduced by half. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the butter, several pieces at a time, and cook, stirring, until each is incorporated. Stir in the thyme. Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the pan and cook until the chicken is heated through and cooked all the way, turning, 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and divide the chicken and sauce among 4 plates. Garnish each serving with the bacon and fresh chives and serve.

Essence (Emeril’s Creole Seasoning):

• 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

Yield: about 2/3 cup

Recipe from “New New Orleans Cooking”, by Emeril Lagasse and Jessie Tirsch. Published by William and Morrow, 1993.

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE CAKE

INGREDIENTS:

2 large eggs

¾ cup vegetable oil

¾ cup warm water

8 ounces sour cream

1 package devil’s food cake mix

1 small package instant chocolate pudding mix

1 12-ounce package chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

Combine the eggs, oil, water and sour cream. Beat well. Add the cake mix and pudding. Beat until smooth. Fold in chips

Pour into greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (I think it takes at least 10 minutes longer.)

Let cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Invert onto rack/plate until completely cooled. Sprinkle the top with icing sugar

OR

For extreme chocolate death make the following icing:



BITTERSWEET HARD ICING

INGREDIENTS:

4 tablespoons butter

2 ounces semi sweet chocolate

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

3 tablespoons heavy cream

⅔ cup sifted icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Melt the butter and chocolate over simmering water (in a double boiler) stirring constantly. Remove from heat and whisk in cream. Add the sugar and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Coat the top of the cake and drizzle the icing down the sides of the cake.

 

Nigel Slater recipe: an extremely moist chocolate beetroot cake with crème fraîche and poppy seeds

The beetroot is subtle here, some might say elusive, but it is a lot cheaper than ground almonds and blends perfectly with chocolate. This is a seductive cake, deeply moist and tempting.

An extremely moist chocolate beetroot cake with crème fraîche and poppy seeds Photo: BENJAMIN MCMAHON

By Nigel Slater 6:55AM BST 26 Sep 2009

Enough for 8 as a dessert

I have lost count of the number of appreciative emails and blog mentions about the brownies and the chocolate almond cake in The Kitchen Diaries. They are received gratefully. It is true that I am rarely happier than when making chocolate cake. I especially like baking those that manage to be cake-like on the outside and almost molten within. Keeping a cake’s heart on the verge of oozing is down partly to timing and partly to the ingredients – ground almonds and very good-quality chocolate will help enormously. But there are other ways to moisten a cake, such as introducing grated carrots or, in this case, crushed beetroot.

The serving suggestion of crème fraîche is not just a nod to the soured cream so close to beetroot’s Eastern European heart, it is an important part of the cake.

Ingredients

250g beetroot

200g fine dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids)

4 tbsp hot espresso

200g butter

135g plain flour

a heaped tsp baking powder

3 tbsp good-quality cocoa powder

5 eggs

190g golden caster sugar

crème fraîche and poppy seeds, to serve

Lightly butter a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin and line the base with a disc of baking parchment. Set the oven to 180C/gas mark 4 – 350F.

Cook the beetroot, whole and unpeeled, in boiling unsalted water. Depending on their size, they will be knifepoint tender within 30 to 40 minutes. Young ones may take slightly less. Drain them, let them cool under running water, then peel them, slice out their stem and root, and blitz to a rough purée.

Melt the chocolate, snapped into small pieces, in a small bowl resting over a pot of simmering water. Don’t stir. When the chocolate looks almost melted, pour the hot coffee over it and stir once. Cut the butter into small pieces – the smaller the better –and add to the melted chocolate. Dip the butter down under the surface of the chocolate with a spoon (as best you can) and leave to soften.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa. Separate the eggs; put the whites in a mixing bowl. Stir the yolks together.

Now, working quickly but gently, remove the bowl of chocolate from the heat and stir until the butter has melted into the chocolate. Leave for a few minutes, then stir in the egg yolks. Do this quickly, mixing firmly so the eggs blend into the mixture. Fold in the beetroot. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold in the sugar. Firmly but tenderly fold the beaten egg whites and sugar into the chocolate mixture. A large metal spoon is what you want; work in a deep, figure-of-eight movement but take care not to over-mix. Fold in the flour and cocoa.

Transfer quickly to the prepared cake tin and put in the oven, turning the heat down immediately to 160C/gas mark 3 – 325F. Bake for 40 minutes. The rim of the cake will feel spongy, the inner part should still wobble a little when gently shaken.

Leave to cool (it will sink a tad in the centre), loosening it around the edges with a palette knife after half an hour or so. It is not a good idea to remove the cake from its tin until it is completely cold. Serve in thick slices, with crème fraîche and poppy seeds.

‘Tender Volume 1: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch’ by Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate) is available for £26 plus £1.25 p&p from Telegraph Books (0844-871 1515; books.telegraph.co.uk)