Bruce decided to try our first dish from the cookbook tonight. It was a resounding success. Who would have thought that grapes and olives were a good combo? This was an absolutely spectacular dish. (Note: Vaden has indicated that we may need to consult a thesauraus so as to not use the same superlatives over and over....).
Bruce browned the chicken in two separate skillets simultaneously, and added the olives, grapes and shallots and tossed them both into the oven for 20 min. After 20 minutes, these were transferred to the ceramic serving dish pictured above that could be put back in the oven while he was reducing the sauce.
We were served the dish with green beans and twice-baked potatoes. Vaden decided that the perfect proportion was one grape to one-half olive; we agreed. The chicken was really juicy, and the sweet-salty combination of the grapes and olives was really good.
We all thought it was interesting how the shallots melted in to the dish, and that even more would have been fine. We discussed possibly manipulating this dish to work with a white fish. Bruce thinks one could use a meaty white fish, without browning it, toss it in the oven with the grapes/shallots/olives for 20 minutes. Stay tuned.
WOW - sounds fantastic. Let's try it with cod!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love seeing my casserole dish!
ReplyDeleteI'll try to get the color right next time! :)
DeleteSo pretty! And it sounds like it was a big hit. That's a good sign.
ReplyDeleteI made this last night for M and guests. They all really like it. I also made the Wild Mushroom Tart (and will write about that later). After making it, I am curious as to how the dish would work with fish, so B&K, you'll have to let us know.
ReplyDelete