The Ash Creek Papers

KISS. Keep it simple stupid!  Do you know how many times I heard that when I was in Basic Training at FT. Jackson, SC.?  Let me spare you the mystery.  The Army was/is world class in dropping its instruction to the lowest common denominator! Enter this recipe.  No need for fancy bells & whistles.  No obscure ingredients.  No elaborate prep.  No detailed cooking steps with intricate heat levels. Assemble the marinade, put the key ingredient (chicken breasts) into a storage bag. Throw it in the fridge.  Done.   In short, what are we looking at here?  It’s the perfect I’ve-played-18-holes-today,-had-a-swim-and-what’s-for-dinner? recipe! Meaning?  Put the marinade together in the morning and forget about it.  Go about what you do.  Tend to the roses.  Walk the 7 mile loop in your town.  Visit your bank account.  Take a hot shower as necessary. Give 5 minutes of thought to the choice of sides — in my case it’s grilled sweet corn and a tomato & cucumber salad!  It’s summer!

Even though my first allegiance is to White Burgundy, my go-to white wine is Sauvignon Blanc.  I love the wine on its own merit, but  more importantly, Sauvignon Blanc is the “Swiss army knife” of wine when it comes to putting a glass alongside a diversity of food.  Fish? Check! Salads? Check! Veggie dishes? Check! Grilled chicken? Check!! For Sauvignon Blanc I lean to the Loire Valley’s Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé.  But I wanted to give the Vista Reserve from Napa a test drive.  Why?  Because Vista’s Grant Long is a gifted winemaker!  I have greatly enjoyed any number of his Pinot Noirs and Cabernets.  And the 2019 Reserve doesn’t disappoint.  Fresh.  Flavorful without being opulent. Clean, dry finish.  Perfect with my grilled chicken.  And, P.S. a fabulous value at the price.

Vista Sauvignon Blanc Reserve ’19 (Napa, CA)
This Sauvignon Blanc opens with alluring aromas of melon, boxwood, gooseberry, citrus and guava. A full and lively palate of green apple and lemongrass balances this wine’s tropical and lime zest notes with crisp acidity that gives way to a soft landing  finish.

{For the video take on the wine, copy into your browser http://summerofjim.com/?p=110663}

MOJITO MARINATED GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST

 Ingredients
6 ounces of Tanqueray Gin
½ ounce of Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth
3 blue cheese stuffed olives
2 chicken breasts
1/3 cup white rum
1/3 cup fresh mint, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp pretzel salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
Fresh lime juice

Directions
1. Put gin and vermouth into a glass pitcher, fill with ice, stir vigorously while incanting, “You who know all, thank you for providing us juniper and all the other obscure ingredients responsible for creating this sacred liquid!” Strain into a pre-frozen Martini glass of admirable size.  Skewer the olives on one of those tacky cocktail swords, place in glass. Immediately begin consuming.  Now you can begin the food prep, and the cooking!

2. Pound the hell out of the chicken breasts to a uniform thickness

3. Put all the ingredients (with a good squeeze of fresh lime juice added) into a ziplock bag and with great vigor, stir them up so that all the chicken is coated with the marinade. Put it into the fridge.

4. Marinate for at least 4 hours.  Or overnight.

5. For grilling, 5-7 minutes on each side should do, depending on the thickness of the breasts.

6. Plate, add a squeeze of fresh lime juice and garnish with mint leaves.

n.b. For my grilled corn, I husk the corn, apply a serious coating of garlic butter, and wrap the cob in tin foil.

Memorial Day weekend?  With three days of rain and 46° air temp, we have regressed into “stew season”.  Well… not all the way back into snow-beating-against-the-window-pane-throw-a-log-on-the-fire stew season.  I was looking for a “transitional” recipe.  A dish that was satisfying, but not lie-on-the-couch-after-dinner-can’t-move satisfying.  This shrimp and sausage dish meets the “Goldilocks Standard”…not too big, not too small it’s just right.  Many ingredients, but easy to prepare, good flavor oomph, without being heavy-heavy. 

Further, I had a slightly chilled red wine that screamed to be opened!  First, by way of background, there are five wine regions in Burgundy, running north to south: Chablis, Côte d’Or, Côte Chalonnaise, Mâconnais & Beaujolais.  The varietal for red wine is Pinot Noir, except in Beaujolais where Gamay is the grape.  It is very rare to see these red varietals blended together. I think of it as an “irregular verb” type of blend. {SPOILER ALERT: I have a fondness for atypical blends}  I knew of two AOCs that blend Pinot Noir and Gamay: Bourgogne Pas-Tout-Grains and Saint-Pourçain.  And then I came upon a Loire Valley wine that employed the same blend!  It’s the perfect match for the recipe!  The wine meets the Goldilocks Standard, too!  Flavorful complexities without bulk.  And served slightly chilled, it’s a refreshing red to serve with the  shrimp and sausage stew. Plus (and this great news!), the wine is a natural “barbeque red” for when warm weather returns! Alternate wine choices for the stew: Cru Beaujolais would work well here, as would an Alsatian Pinot Gris.

François Cazin Cheverney Rouge “Le Petit Chambord” ’19 (Loire, France)
Cheverny is one of the most recent appellations in the Loire Valley (1991). The area, south of the Loire and abutting the marshy region of Sologne (the best hunting grounds in France), has produced wines since the 6th century. The soils consist of various combinations of clay, limestone and silica. Le Petit Chambord is a blend of 67% Pinot Noir and 33% Gamay from estate vines averaging thirty years old on clay-limestone soils, sustainably farmed and harvested by hand. The varieties are vinified separately. Cheverny is fresh and floral, with appley-texture and crisp acidity. The flavors are sleek and precise.

SHRIMP & SAUSAGE STEW

Ingredients
6 ounces of Tanqueray Gin
½ ounce of Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth
3 olives stuffed with blue cheese
¼ cup olive oil
1 lb andouille sausage, cut into rounds
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 large celery rib finely chopped
½ green bell pepper, chopped
8 cloves of garlic, minced
½ tsp cayenne pepper
3 tomatoes chopped (about 2 cups)
1 cup low sodium chicken stock
1 cup bottled clam juice
10 oz frozen baby lima beans, thawed
¼ cup flat leaf parsley
2 lbs very large shrimp (shell-on)

Directions
1. Put gin and vermouth into a glass pitcher, fill with ice, stir vigorously while incanting, “You who know all, thank you for providing us juniper and all the other obscure ingredients responsible for creating this sacred liquid!” Strain into a pre-frozen Martini glass of admirable size.  Skewer the olives on one of those tacky cocktail swords, place in glass. Immediately begin consuming.  Now you can begin the food prep, and the cooking!

2. In a large deep skillet heat the oil.  Add the sausage and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until lightly browned (about 5 minutes).  Using a slotted spoon transfer to a plate.

3. Add the onion, celery and green pepper to the skillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until softened (about five minutes).  Add the garlic and cayenne and cook for another minute.  Add tomatoes and cook, stirring until their liquid is nearly evaporated (about five minutes).  Add the stock and clam juice and bring to a boil.  Scatter the sausage and lima beans and half of the parsley on top.  Add the shrimp, cover tightly and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, until the shrimp is pink and cooked thru.  Let the stew rest for five minutes off heat, then sprinkle with remaining parsley and serve.

n.b. The recipe originally called for “large” shrimp.  My view on shrimp?  The larger the better!  Also, I don’t waste time deveining the shrimp (it raises the potential for kitchen injuries).  The recipe with its roots in the South called for andouille sausage.  Really?  Any sausage would be fine.  What do you have on hand?  Chorizo?  Bratwurst?  Go for it! I used Black Bear’s Hungarian Bratwurst because I had it in the fridge.