Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Lavender Lemon Chicken

All that enthusiasm for cooking for one went right out the window after last Wednesday/Thursday morning. Thursday was a 10 martinis with some friends followed by a hugely overpriced steak dinner(martinis cloud your judgement). Friday was a wrap stuffed with cold leftover tofu and peach salsa. Thankfully. my aunt and uncle were in town and they spoiled me with a dinner at Yoshi's, followed with snacks at La Bodega. By Sunday, I was in full on pity party mode, eating breadsticks for dinner with a bottle of wine. Yes, all by myself. Monday, Subway. I slept 30 hours in the last 8 nights. I watched 12 movies, read 8 books. But Rob, called last night and he is in Salmon Arm, a mere six hours away; my energy is back and I treated myself to a nice dinner last night with a little help from Quince and the Okanagan Wine shop.

I purchased a leek risotto and a summer vegetable medley (hard to do these items in small portions) from quince and picked up a bottle of rose at the wine shop. A quick stop at the corner and I had a free range chicken breast.
The oven was preheated to 375 and the chicken breast sprinkled with Lavender Sea salt from Eatwell Farms. I seared it in a smoking hot cast iron, two minutes on the skin, flip, two minutes on the other side. Cutting a lemon in half, I placed it cut side down in the cast iron and slid it in the oven, setting the timer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, I heated the risotto with some water and started heating a saute pan for the veggies. A glass of Lemberger-Pinot Noir from Lang Vineyards helped me pass the time waiting for the chicken to finish.
Once the chicken was done, I set it aside to rest, (threw the veg medley in the saute pan) squeezed the remaining pulp from the lemons and threw them way. I deglazed the hot skillet with some wine, reducing it slightly. This was my easy pan sauce.
Dinner was served and I actually got 8 hrs of sleep last night....

3 comments:

wheresmymind said...

Risotto is either a 'go big or stay home' recipe for me. Either it is the primary dish or it's too much of a pain to make

Traveling Em said...

Eatwell farms is my CSA!!! Although, I'll actually probably be switching back to Marquita when I move, but I still like Eatwell :)

Lisa said...

You poor little thing! Glad he's coming back soon or I would begin to worry. :) That dinner-for-one sounds so good. Lavender sea salt . . . sounds about as wonderful as the truffle salt Kate talked about on Pie in the Sky a couple months ago. I never did get hold of that stuff.