Chicken with silverbeet, white beans and marsala, a handy sauce Béarnaise, and coconut rice pudding with persimmon
Warming. Comforting. Autumnal.
Marsala, that sweet wine from Sicily, is a comforting, somewhat retro ingredient that enjoyed a massive peak in popularity in the 60’s and 70’s.
It was sloshed into practically anything, be it sweet (most things, including zabaglione, trifle, soufflés and so on) or savoury (literally everything).
It makes me think of Julia Child, crashing about flamboyantly with copper pans and flames. Glorious to those of us once or twice removed from that era, even if there seems to be a whole generation who shies away from such flavours now (perhaps in much the same way people my age shy away from things like smoked chicken, sundried tomatoes, balsamic squiggles and bowl lattes).
Use a marsala on the slightly drier side for the chicken dish, but ultimately let your tastes dictate. If you can’t get hold of marsala, use sherry, riesling or even a sweeter Pinot Gris - although you won’t get quite the same depth of flavour.
Béarnaise is said to have been invented in honour of King Henri IV of France, who was born in Béarn, a province in the Pyrenees. It is a cornerstone sauce of French cuisine, a ‘child’ of hollandaise sauce, which is prepared in a similar fashion.
I love it with steak, as should any thinking person, but find that it goes just as well with chicken or pork. If it curdles as you are making it, gradually whisk in a tablespoon of cold water; this should revive it.
Persimmon is one of those overlooked and underrated fruits, pretty, but intimidating almost, it seems.
What is to be done with these peculiar orange tomatoey looking things? I asked around, and most of my lot had barely even tasted one.
This, I’ll tell you, is what is to be done with them. I love rice pudding, and hate to mess with such a classic, but irked by the lack of decent vegan sweet things out there, sought to create something appropriately so. I’m pretty happy with the result.
It’s excellent cold or reheated for breakfast, by the way.
Have a lovely week, all.
S xx
CHICKEN WITH SILVERBEET, WHITE BEANS AND MARSALA
