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Balsamic-Glazed Chicken and Zucchini with Grilled Limes

30 Sep

It may seem a little late for a recipe centered around grilling, but summer came so late around here that we’ve been able to keep our grill working well into September.  It’s a good thing we took advantage of that long stretch of dry weather, too, for right now it is raining and I am wearing a scarf.  Over my sweater.  And crying.

But let’s not talk about that.  Let’s instead talk about something that I think everybody needs in their arsenal of quick meals: a fast weeknight dish.  It’s not the most exciting of topics, I know, but maybe pretend you are making this quick meal before you take off to meet some friends for drinks and then go to your favorite bar to see the Hold Steady.  Only that bar has closed down now, and the Hold Steady no longer plays in little bars anyhow, so you might have to see them play some big club with far too many beer-sodden patrons who think they should jump up and down in front of you like the (now departed) keyboardist in the Hold Steady used to do, only when the keyboardist did it it was charming, and when this dude in front of you does it it just blocks your view and makes you a little tired of being violently leaped on every two seconds.

I seem to have veered off course a bit.

So, chicken!  I know that boneless, skinless chicken breasts have a bad reputation, and I completely understand why.  It’s very easy to make something as simple as a chicken breast taste terrible, what with that portion of the chicken being so utterly plain, devoid of fat, and easy to overcook.  The other side of that equation is, it is also fairly easy to make a chicken breast shine, what with its versatility and unrivalled ability to absorb flavor.  With this simple balsamic glaze that requires very little action other than a periodic swipe across the chicken, you can produce a quick chicken dish that is flavorful, fast, and totally satisfying.

The greatest asset of the entire dish, however, lies not in the chicken, but in the grilled limes.

Just a couple of minutes on a hot grill will coax untold amounts of juice out of each lime, and with just a bit of the bright, caramelized fruit squeezed over each serving of chicken, you instantly add a layer of flavor to each bite that will make you wonder how you ever managed to produce such a fantastic meal in such a short amount of time.

Balsamic-Glazed Chicken and Zucchini with Grilled Limes

Hey, lady, why on earth are you giving us a recipe for grilled chicken when it’s no longer grilling season?  Because if you have a grill pan sitting in your kitchen, that grill pan will work just as well as an outside grill.  Good grill pans are available for as little as $19 on Amazon, and I’ve yet to enter a discount kitchen store that hasn’t had at least half a dozen grill pans sitting around looking all well-priced and ready to be taken home.

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large garlic clove, crushed and finely chopped

salt and pepper

4 boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves

2 medium zucchini, sliced lengthwise into ¼-inch slices

2 limes, sliced in half

In a medium bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, olive oil, chopped garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.  Add zucchini slices to glaze, toss to combine, and set aside.  The zucchini slices will only have to sit in the glaze for a minute or two.

Heat a grill or grill pan to medium high heat.  Place chicken breasts on grill.  Remove zucchini slices to a plate, and set aside.  Using a heatproof brush, brush a generous amount of the balsamic blaze on the exposed side of each chicken breast.  Cook the first side of the chicken breast for 4-5 minutes (until chicken has dark, visible grill marks), then flip chicken and brush glaze on the cooked side of the chicken.  After 4-5 more minutes, brush chicken with glaze again, flip again, then brush once more.  Cook chicken until done, occasionally brushing with more glaze. Chicken will be done when it reaches an internal temperature of about 160 degrees Fahrenheit.  When poked with a knife, the emitting juices should be clear, not tinged pink or yellow.

While the chicken finishes cooking, add the limes to the grill, cut side down.  Add the zucchini slices to the grill, and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, until zucchini is soft but not mushy, and has visible grill marks on each side.

If you are using a grill pan instead of an outdoor grill and do not have enough room to cook chicken, zucchini, and limes all at once, cook the chicken first (for a total of about 7-10 minutes on each side, depending on how large the chicken breasts are), set aide, and then cook zucchini and limes.

Serve each chicken breast sliced, accompanied by zucchini and half of a grilled lime.  I like to serve the chicken and zucchini on a bed of greens, often with slices of fresh tomato.  When ready to eat, squeeze the juice of the grilled lime over the chicken and vegetables.

Serves 4-6 people.

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Lime Coconut Tart

26 Sep

It is no secret that my love of tarts and pies, both savory and sweet, rides front and center on this website.  Sometimes I change things up a bit and find myself leaning my affections towards galettes, but, for the most part, tarts and pies are sort of like my best food friends (incidentally, my son’s best food friend would be carbs, and my husband’s best food friend would be all the food, everywhere, all of it).  Not coincidentally, what do I make my actual best friend every year for her birthday?  That’s right.  A pie.

So it should come as no surprise that when I discovered three cans of coconut milk sitting in the back of our pantry that seemed to appear as if from nowhere, my first thought was, “I am going to put this in a tart.”  No, really.  Some people might wonder, “When did I buy these?” or “Who needs three cans of coconut milk?”  But not me.  It should also come as no surprise that my second thought after finding the secret stash of coconut milk was, “I must find the best tart dough in all the land.”

For years I have been engaged in a highly serious search for the world’s best sweet tart dough.  I have found what I think is the best galette dough, I have my favorite pie dough, and there is always, of course, my favorite pizza dough, but tart dough?  That’s something else all together.  Tart dough is difficult.  It is prone to slumping and shrinking, and if it does happen to keep its shape, it is also often hard and bland.  Most tart dough, if not soggy, is too crunchy, almost like a cookie.  A cookie is fine, of course, but tart dough it is not.  Tart dough should be sturdy, but not heavy or tough.  It should also be buttery and only slightly sweet, sort of like a shortbread, only not as crumbly and sandy.  My list of qualifications, as you can see, is long and specific, hence my dedicated search.  Or my former search, because now?  Now I have found what is the best, most fail-proof tart dough around.

The end to my searching was not, as it turns out, all that dramatic.  In what might be called the least shocking news in recent memory, the tart dough I ended up using (and finding perfect in every way imaginable) was found in that bible of all things baking, Tartine’s cookbook.  Of course it was.  I’ve eaten their tarts many, many times, and I am well aware of the utterly transcendent quality of all their pastries.  Why it took me so long to get around to making my own batch of their tart dough—look, it doesn’t matter.  I have no excuse.  And you should not either.  You should go make this tart dough right now, and then fill the tart dough with this fantastically tart, creamy filling of coconut milk, lime juice, and lime zest.  Lightly scented with the sweet taste of coconut, wonderfully brisk from the burst of fresh lime, it’s a nearly perfect tart that also happens to be, as it goes, perfectly tart.

Lime Coconut Tart

Tartine’s Sweet Tart Dough

From Tartine

Makes enough dough for 4 9-inch tart shells

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

3 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, sugar, and salt, and mix on medium speed until smooth.  Mix in 1 egg until smooth, then mix in the second egg until smooth again.  With the mixer off, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then add in the flour all at once and mix on low speed until well incorporated.

On a lightly floured work surface, turn out dough and divide into 4 equal balls.  Shape each ball into a disk about ½-inch thick.  Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least two hours, or overnight.  If you are only preparing to use 1 of the tart shells, place 1 disk of dough in the refrigerator, and store the remaining 3 disks of dough in the freezer for up to 3 weeks.

To prepare a tart shell for baking, on a lightly floured surface, roll out a disk of tart dough about 1/8-inch thick.  Work quickly to prevent the dough from becoming warm.  Cut out a circle 2 inches larger than your tart pan.  If the dough is still cool, lift the dough into the tart pan, gently pressing it into the sides and bottom of the pan.  If the dough is sticky and no longer cool, place the dough in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm up before transferring it to the pan. Trim the top of the dough evenly with the top of the pan, then place the pastry shell in the freezer for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Using a fork or the tip of a knife, poke many small holes in the bottom of the tart shell about 2 inches apart..  Bake the tart in the oven for 7 to 10 minutes for a partially baked shell, 12 to 15 minutes for a fully baked shell.  A partially baked shell should look dry and slightly opaque, and a fully baked shell should look golden brown.

A baked pastry shell will keep, well wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, and in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.

Lime Coconut Filling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

4 large eggs

1 ¼ cups sugar

½ cup coconut milk

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

2 teaspoons lime zest

pinch salt

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until well incorporated.  While still whisking, slowly add in the coconut milk, then lime juice.  Whisk in the lime zest and pinch of salt.

Pour filling into partially baked tart shell, then bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the filling is set.  The top should be just beginning to brown, and the center of the filling should jiggle ever-so-slightly when the pan is bumped.

Place tart on a rack to cool completely, then, when cool, unmold and serve.  If desired, chill tart in refrigerator for several hours, or overnight, before serving.

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Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes and Caramelized Lemon-Balsamic Onions

8 Sep

Every year it seems as though Portland teases us through most of the summer with its cold, misty mornings, overcast days, and utter lack of regard for those of us who try time and time again to coax our vegetable gardens into producing even the smallest amount of fresh rewards.  And then, come the end of August, everything seems to explode with abundance.  All at once, tomatoes are ripening, cucumbers are growing fat, and long-awaited peppers of all types are finally starting to showcase a veritable rainbow of colors.

Somewhat  miraculously, the one vegetable that seems undaunted by the chill of Portland summers is green beans.  When your garden’s tomatoes are rock hard and still hiding from the cold behind their pale skins, green beans of all sorts will be waiting for you, their crispness like a friendly welcome to the growing season.  I’ve been known to snap beans right off of the vine and immediately start munching, but, when feeling a bit more refined, it’s never a chore to find ways to dress the beans up a bit.

Unfortunately, having now introduced myself to fancied up green beans with a layer of lemony-bright caramelized onions, topped with a blanket of sweet-tart cherry tomatoes, I now feel as though there will never be another way for me to eat fresh garden beans.  While I will never disparage the simple steamed green bean, it’s been a long time since I have found myself so enamored with a green bean dish that I want to make it—and eat it in its entirely—every single day.  This combination of richly caramelized onions and crisp beans has become my most beloved summer side dish, the dish I want to bring to potlucks, make for a family dinner, or just eat straight from the platter while standing in the kitchen.  It’s summery and satisfying, and it makes me think that next year, when the sun is still hibernating and the garden sitting in waiting, I might have to set aside a large plot of yard space for beans to help me make it through the chilly beginnings of another Pacific Northwest summer.

Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes and Caramelized Lemon-Balsamic Onions

1 ½ pounds green beans, both ends trimmed and any tough strings removed

1 pound onions (I used 1 very large sweet onion)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 generous tablespoon lemon zest

8 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes

salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.  Boil beans until bright green and crisp-tender, anywhere from 3-5 minutes, depending on the size of your beans (larger beans will need to cook longer, and smaller, skinnier beans will need less time).  Drain the beans and immediately plunge into an ice water bath (this will stop the beans from cooking any further, and also help them retain their bright green color).  When the beans have cooled, drain and set aside.

Cut onions in half from end to end, then slice into thin ribs.  In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat.  Add the onions to the pan, throw on a pinch of salt, and slowly cook onions, stirring occasionally, until they turn golden, about 20 minutes.  Turn heat down to low, add balsamic vinegar, stir to combine, and cook an additional 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add lemon zest.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir to combine.

Slice each cherry or grape tomato in half.  Arrange cooked beans on a large platter, and top with caramelized onions.  Sprinkle tomato halves over the onions and beans.

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