Feed Me!

I love Wednesdays because that's the day dinner is easy.  On Wednesdays Melissa Clark often helps me decide what to make.  Sometimes I'll get really lucky and David Tanis will help me out with his column City Kitchen and Thursday's dinner is taken care of too. They makes life a lot easier.

Here's the thing.  You Little Tarte is a lot like that giant plant in Little Shop of Horrors.  FEED ME!  That's what the blog is like.  Most people make the same things over and over.  If it was a crowd pleaser once then it'll go over well again.  I feel that way too, but no one would be very excited if I posted the recipe for Crusty Beef Casserole once a month.

So I have to constantly be on the lookout for new and interesting recipes.  That's why the Wednesday food section of The New York Times is required reading for me.  It gives me lots of new recipes to try out and tell you about.  Other people live for the weekend.  I live for Wednesdays.

Ready to roll.

Now I'm not complaining.  The blog has made me a better and more adventurous cook.  Before the blog, I would never have considered fennel a go-to vegetable.  I would never have made my own preserved lemons.  Instead, I would have searched out preserved lemons in an ethnic market and then felt like a real gourmet cook for having found them.  And I would never have made half of the things I've now mastered.

Thank you.  And Ted and Kate thank you too.  Because as good as Crusty Beef Casserole is, they like the variety that feeding the blog brings.

Recipe:  Sautéed Chicken With Meyer Lemon and Rosemary
(A Good Appetite, New York Times, February 22, 2012)


Ingredients:


1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into 1/2-inch strips
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons minced rosemary
Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 Meyer lemons
2 tablespoons sugar
2 leeks, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Directions:


Toss the chicken with 1 tablespoon oil, rosemary, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper.

Trim the ends from 1 lemon, quarter lengthwise and remove the seeds. Slice quarters crosswise into 1/8-inch slices.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the lemon slices, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain under cold running water. Rinse out the pot and refill it with 1 cup water, the sugar and 1 tablespoon salt. Bring to a boil. Drop in the blanched lemon slices and simmer for 3 minutes. Drain under cold running water, pat dry.

Heat a skillet over high heat for 5 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons oil. It should start to shimmer immediately; add the lemon slices and stir-fry quickly until golden. Stir in the leeks and reduce heat to medium-high. Cook until leeks are soft and golden, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute. Push the leek mixture to one side of the skillet; stir in the chicken mixture and sear, without moving, about 4 minutes. Mix in the leeks and continue cooking until the chicken is no longer pink, about 3 to 6 minutes more. Drizzle with juice from the remaining lemon half, to taste.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.