Poulet à l'estragon et au vin blanc

Chicken and tarragon (estragon in French) are a match made in heaven. The flavor is very subtle but delicious. I cooked chicken this way over the weekend, using sprigs of fresh tarragon from a potted plant that I've managed to keep going for two or three years now.

I had bought a whole chicken — a corn-fed poulet jaune — and I decided to cook just half of it for the two of us. I cut it in half along one side of the backbone and through the breastbone, and I put the half with the backbone still attached in the freezer. Maybe we'll cook that on the grill later.

Poulet à l'estragon et au vin blanc — you could make the same thing using just chicken breast or thigh meat.

I cut the other half of the chicken into four pieces: the drumstick, the thigh, and the breast/wing split in half. The first step in making tarragon chicken is to brown the chicken, skin side down, in a frying pan with some butter and/or oil. Once the chicken pieces are golden brown, take them out of the pan and put them in a medium oven, covered, for 15 minutes to stay warm and continue cooking.

The second step is to make the sauce. Remove some of the fat from the frying pan if you think there's too much in there. Slice up a couple of shallots or a small onion and cook the slices lightly in the pan. When they are softened but not really browned, pour in half a cup of white wine and half a cup of chicken broth (or water). Stir well.

Let the tarragon sprigs and shallot slices "steep" in the sauce to give all their flavor.

Add three six-inch sprigs of tarragon into the liquid, along with a quarter-cup of cream and a teaspoon or two of Dijon mustard. Another option is to put in a teaspoon or two of white wine vinegar instead of mustard, but I think the Dijon mustard is tastier. Simmer the sauce for five minutes so that the tarragon flavor will have time to develop. Don't forget to add some salt and pepper, to taste.

The chicken isn't swimming in sauce — you just want a small amount.

There you've pretty much got it. Add more cream if you want a richer sauce, which will thicken slightly as it reduces. Then take the chicken pieces out of the oven and put them back in the pan. Put on a lid and let the chicken, which is nearly completely cooked by now, simmer and steam through in the sauce for five minutes. Cook it as done as you like it, actually.

Chicken, tarragon cream sauce, pasta (coquillettes), and steamed summer squash slices panned in butter.

The final step is to put the chicken and the sauce in a serving dish and sprinkle on some chopped tarragon leaves to give everything that good fresh flavor. Serve with rice or pasta. We had some tiny elbow macaroni and some steamed summer squash slices with ours.

'Tis the season

I know it's not Christmas. But it's zucchini season. We've pretty much decided to eat zucchini every day for the next ever how many days... as long as they are showing up in the garden.

I really like these zebra-striped zucchini Walt planted this year. The look of them, I mean, and also their size, which makes them perfect for stuffing. I'm going to stuff these three with a Greek-style mix of rice, chopped olives, and ground meat today. There's a lemon sauce that you serve them with, and I'll try to make that too.

Zucchini blossoms are kind of lemon yellow. Actually, maybe we should start eating blossoms instead of waiting for zukes to form.

We also have Swiss chard out in the garden. Walt planted it a couple of months ago, and then we had quite a bit of rain. Weeds took it over, and we figured the chard plants had just died underneath all the unwanted plants.

One day a few weeks ago, I got out there and started pulling weeds. Lo and behold, I found half a dozen little chard sprouts. I cleared some space for them, and they are looking good. We both really enjoy chard, so we're happy.

Garden update

Tomatoes (32 plants), haricots verts (3 rows), zucchini, sweet corn, eggplants, pole beans, winter squash, rhubarb, cucumbers, and cilantro...

...it's all growing and just starting to produce. It's so green! We are going to have a hard time keeping up with the harvest, I predict. August will be another busy month. September too, probably.

We never picked the artichokes; we usually don't. We just let them turn into these pretty purple flowers. The photo above was taken on a nice morning just after sunrise.

A summertime salad

Here's an idea for a summer salad that Walt has been making for years. I've searched my blog and Walt's for the recipe but I guess we've never posted it before. The ingredients are zucchini, tomatoes, corn, a cooked grain — bulgur, rice, wheat berries, or couscous, for example — and herbs.

Diced zucchini and tomato salad with bulgur and sweet corn

1½ cups bulgur, brown rice, wheat berries, couscous, or quinoa

2 large, fresh tomatoes

2 small or 1 large zucchini

1 cup cooked sweet corn kernels

2 or 3 Tbsp. chopped fresh herbs (basil, mint, parsley, tarragon...)

1 clove of garlic

2 Tbsp. vinegar

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

salt and pepper to taste

Cook the bulgur, brown rice, couscous, wheat berries (Ebly in France), or other grain.

Meanwhile, remove the seeds from the tomatoes and dice the tomato flesh finely. Cut the zucchini into fine dice. (Peel the vegetables if you want to.) If using fresh or frozen corn, steam the kernels for 3 or 4 minutes — corn from a tin can go in without cooking. Chop the fresh herbs and finely dice or puree the garlic clove.

When the cooked grain has cooled to room temperature, mix it with the diced tomato, zucchini, and corn. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, vinegar, and oil. Mix in the chopped herbs and serve the salad chilled or at room temperature.

There are hundreds of possible variations on this theme, of course. Cucumber would be a good substitution for zucchini, or a good addition to the salad. Lemon juice could replace vinegar. Use the oil you prefer, or a combination. And the herbs...

Walt made the salad a couple of days ago using fresh mint, and I think it's really delicious with that flavor. We ate the bulgur salad with oven-roasted chicken wings that we marinated and basted with a combination of honey, lemon (zest and juice), and garlic.