My Ode to Capers

I remember when we purchased this jar of capers from our local Costco. I thought there was no way in the world we would be able to use them all. I mean, I like capers but a whole quart of them? Certainly that's not possible, right? I will never doubt my wife again.





We started by looking up all kinds of recipes that use capers as a central component. We found lots of dishes with salmon, obviously. But we make a lot of chicken so we started with Chicken Piccata. This is a fantastic recipe that I will use over and over.

But Andrea branched out and started experimenting. She put them in what is now our favorite potato salad. The capers add a nice tangy, bitter and mix well with the slight amount of cayenne she adds to make this dish unlike any other potato salad but still familiar. Love it...


Chicken Piccata

1 Whole Chicken
6 Tablespoons Butter
5 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Lemon Juice
2/3 Cup Chicken Stock
1/3 Cup Capers

Pasta

1.25 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Semolina
3 Eggs


I took a whole chicken and quartered it (learn how here) to decrease the cooking time and provide uniform results. I then roasted those pieces at 300 degrees to cook them through but not dry them out.

While that was cooking I made the pasta. I have done this by hand but I find it is a bit easier in my kitchen aid. Add the one cup of all purpose and one cup of semolina (in a little volcano if you're making it by hand) and then add the eggs. As the kitchen aid is working I may add up to an additional 1/4 cup of all purpose, slowly, depending on how wet or dry the dough is. When it begins to really resist I wrap it up and set it aside for at least 20 minutes.

When the chicken was cooked through but not overly brown I took it out and finished it in the pan. I added 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and browned the breast meat. Then added 2 more tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and browned the hind quarters. Once the meat was out I added the chicken stock to deglaze the pan. Then I added the lemon, capers and any remaining olive oil. I reduced this slightly and added the remainder of the butter just prior to serving to give the sauce a nice sheen.

Cook the pasta as the sauce is reducing. Fresh pasta cooks in under a minute. Toss with sauce but keep some sauce aside for drizzling over the chicken. Serve the chicken over the bed of pasta and enjoy.


Note...
Next time I would make a hair less pasta. (Or a hairless pasta?) When making it by hand I always tend to make too much. Reducing the pasta by a third would probably bring the proportions in line.

Beet Your Ravioli

Skeptical about beet ravioli?

I have wanted to make ravioli with beets for a while and since they were on sale at the store the other day it seemed like the perfect opportunity. But word to the wise, if you plan on making beet ravioli just know that it will be RED (and delicious)!

Honestly, I don’t have much of a recipe. I just took two medium beets and pureed them in the food processor. I found it worked better when I added a little liquid. Although I didn’t want to add too much olive oil so I added egg instead. I figured it was going to go into the pasta dough anyway.

After they were pureed I sieved them to remove all the liquid from the pulp then added half the pulp back into the dough with plenty of semolina and all-purpose flour.

Not much of a recipe, I know, but the pictures are stunning…

In the end the taste was subtle. I stuffed them with classic ricotta and spinach so as not to distract too much. If I ate this blindfolded I don’t know if I would have picked out the beet flavor but I swear it was there.

Slán,
Colin


As always you can check out my etsy shop to buy pottery made exclusively by me!
www.potterybycuchulainn.etsy.com