Shrimp, Mushroom, and Kale Scampi on Creamy Parmesan Polenta

Ooohh.... I know... sounds pretty fancy, right?

(Skip to the end for the recipe and ingredients list without the pre-ramble [sic])

Ok, so I bought some kale the other day because I keep hearing how it's this super awesome mega food that will cure all ailments and make you so healthy you'll say 'neeeeeigh'. Previously, I was a kale virgin. For other kale virgins who have no idea what it is, you probably won't be enticed when I tell you it's a leafy green and is in the same family as broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprouts. Makes you want to run out and grab some, right? Don't tell your kids, it won't win you any points.

Anyway, I'm on this mom-kick of trying to get more greens in us and working on cooking rounded meals with more vegetables than I used to serve. Too many years of living like a bachelorette and thinking a proper meal could be; a box of KD, a box of hamburger helper, or a store-bought sauce dumped on a chunk of meat. It's hard to slowly get out of that mindset and make it 'normal' to include veggies into the dinner table and even harder to make them seem like some kind of amazing treat that is integral to the whole meal. I asked The Wiki Gods about the nutritional content of this magic vegetable, and they told me it's "very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium." which all seems good and healthy sounding. Also, it has a magical compound found in a lot of similar greenish foods that some say is a cancer fighter. Who knows, really... but I'm sold.

Of course, when I picked up the kale I had zero idea what my intentions were as far as using it in a recipe. I figured at worst I would wilt it and stuff it beside/under something with maybe some olive oil and lemon juice like I've been doing with spinach recently. I was moderately surprised that when I approached the "greens" aisle of the store that I generally skip, there were only 3 bunches of kale squished in amongst the lettuce and bok choy. I wondered if it was because it was so awesome everyone was snatching it up? Was it because noone buys the stuff? Was this super old stock they were hoping some poor sucker would pick up? Beats me... but I was on a mission to try it, so I just grabbed the healthiest looking of the 3 and felt like I was doing something productive. I had shopping cart pride because I had almost entirely fresh produce. I'm super mom! Look at me go! I've got KALE in my cart! HAH!

Right... so I have some issues.

At any rate, it sat in my fridge for a few days hiding in my extra veggies basket (Even though I don't feel like I buy a lot of fresh produce, there is never enough room in my veggie drawer. So I have one drawer for veggies, one for fruit, and then I have a dollar store plastic basket on the bottom shelf in my fridge for veggie overflow, because they often take up a lot of surface area so the basket contains them)  and every time I looked down at the poor unused kale I felt a bit less like super mom. So I had a night where I realized that I had no meat thawed and it was getting late. I went poking in my freezer looking for something that would be a quick-thaw or freezer-to-oven dinner and instead found a stash of pre-cooked frozen shrimp! Yay! Now, let's be clear, I grew up on the coast and firmly believe that all seafood should be eaten as soon after it comes out of the ocean as possible, but seriously folks, I live in Edmonton, AB., there are dozens of countries in the world that have a smaller diameter than the distance to the closest ocean from here. So, like the Rolling Stones said, you can't always get what you want. But I do try sometimes, and I find I end up with ... frozen cooked shrimp I bought on sale.

Alright, so... shrimp might go with kale, right? Fish and greens often work well together, so with this inspiration, I went digging around on the interwebs and got some ideas from a few recipes I found and decided to use mushrooms (which I also had) because they're also kind of earthy and do it up scampi style. Scampi, by the way, is a bit of a misnomer since it refers to both a type of lobster and a style of cooking. I am referring, as most North Americans do, to the style of cooking that generally involves cooking shrimp in garlic butter and white wine... which... HOW CAN YOU GO WRONG THERE???.


So, one of the blogs I was looking at suggested serving his recipe on polenta, and I was further inspired! You see, not only was I a kale virgin, but I was a polenta virgin too. Seriously... never had it that I am aware of and most definitely have never cooked it. I did, however, have some cornmeal up in my cupboard that I sometimes use for breading chicken fingers and such. So I did a little research on that and decided I would just go with a simple unadorned recipe with only parmesan added since it has a rich flavour and I am still trying to use that tub that we bought at Costco a couple weeks ago.

Right then, let's get cooking. I did the polenta first, because then I could leave it to set up a bit while cooking the rest. Man that stuff absorbs water! The recipes I saw called for about 1 part cornmeal to 3 parts salted water, but that just didn't seem like enough so I added more water. I probably didn't need to do that... but I wasn't going for hard packed, just creamy. Anyway, you can pre-mix some of it in some water to avoid too many lumps, but with the amount of stirring you have to do, I imagine that it's probably unneccesary because as long as you stir it till your arms fall off you're probably going to be ok either way. Really just boil it and stir the heck out of it for 20-30 minutes depending on how much you panicked and added extra water at the beginning. If you stop stirring for more than about 20 seconds, it turns into a burbling swamp and boiling hot cornmeal splats out and hits you, also it starts getting stuck on the bottom of your pot. So just keep stirring. I really had no idea it was this easy. It was just like making cream of wheat and required about the same amount of babysitting and arm strength.

When you figure it's done, or your arms are tired, then take it off the heat and stir in a bunch of butter and parmesan. The quantities are in dispute, but since I love butter and have a a significant amount of fresh parmesan right now, I used about 1/4 cup of butter and about the same amount of parmesan. Probably closer to 1/2 cup of cheese but who's counting. Stir it all in until it melts and then dump it all into a bowl or dish which you buttered (if you're a real cook) or sprayed with aerosol butter flavoured grease (if you're me), and then toss it in the fridge to set up for a while. Basically the longer you let it sit, the longer it starts to become a jello-mold, so if you want to slice it then you need to let it sit for a few hours to cool through. If you like it kind of goopy, then you can serve it right from the pot or at any stage of the game, really. I went goopy ... mostly because of time.

Alright, so on to the rest of the meal. Here's the prep; hack up about 4 cloves of garlic, and a handful or two of mushrooms, cut the stems out of about 4 or 5 kale leaves and roughly chop them. You can slap chop your garlic and mushrooms if you are having one of those days and need to. It probably would have been easier to clean the kale before I chopped it, but either way, it seems you really have to rinse it well because the bunch I had was very dirty. Don't panic though, a little dirt is good for you, my one year old was sucking on fist-sized chunks of it and was as happy as a clam the other day. Plus, it's going to get cooked.

Right then. Heat up a pan to kinda hot (6ish, 7ish) and put some olive oil and butter in. I used about 2 tbsp oil and at least that much butter - probably more like 4tbsp, but who's counting. Put the garlic in and cook it until it smells like garlic heaven or until your family members complain, just don't burn it. Add the mushrooms and cook them for a bit until they're mostly cooked. This is a good time to put your shrimp in a colander or sieve and rinse them under cold running water for about 5 minutes to thaw them. Now, because I've never worked with it before, I blanched my kale for 3-4 min before adding it to the rest, but I probably didn't have to as it would have steamed nicely and blanching it does steal some nutrients. Wow is it ever a beautiful green and it holds it's texture and shape really well. Since I had pre-cooked and now thawed shrimp, and pre-blanched kale, I added everything to the hot pan and then poured a few glugs of white wine in and let it all simmer together happily for a few minutes. Long enough to boil off the booze, heat up the shrimp, and steam your kale if you didn't already. Yay, you're finished! Give your kids a 5 minute hand-washing warning and get it all plated.

So, to serve it, I globbed some polenta on a plate, spooned over some of the shrimp, and then squeezed some fresh lemon (a little zest in the sauce would have been nice in hindsight), drizzled a small amount of extra virgin olive oil over top of everything, and added ground pepper/salt to taste.

It should be noted that I am not a very good photographer, but hey, I got asked for pictures of my food, so keep in mind I don't have the mad skillz to make it look boo-tee-full. 

The Verdict:

I really loved this. The creamy polenta added a fantastic texture and flavour to the scampi dish. The kale was bright green and matched with both the shrimp and mushrooms. I will definitely make this again, possibly with scallops or fresh prawns to make it fancier, and a little lemon zest in the sauce. The rest of the family actually did well with this too. Hubby liked the flavours and was happy with it, the baby happily munched on kale and shrimp alike, and even the 3 year old consented to eat bits and pieces of the scampi - although she wasn't super into the polenta.

Ingredients:

polenta

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 3 cups water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup fresh parmesan

scampi

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 - 4 tbsp butter
• 4 cloves garlic
• 5 - 10 mushrooms
• 4 - 5 kale leaves
• 1 bag pre-cooked frozen shrimp (about 340g size)
• 1/4 cup white wine, preferably dry
• juice & zest from half a fresh lemon
• 1 - 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• salt/pepper to taste

The recipe:

1. For the polenta, boil the cornmeal in salted water for around 20 minutes. Whisk it early to get the lumps out, and then don't stop stirring until it's thick and done
2. Take it off the heat and stir in the butter and parmesan until they are melted
3. If you would like solid polenta, pour it into a greased dish and refrigerate it for a few hours until cooled through, otherwise you can serve it from the pot.
4. For the scampi, dice the garlic and sautee it in oil/butter
5. Chop up the mushrooms and add them to the sautee
6. Rinse the kale well, remove stemps and roughly chop (pre-blanch if you like)
7. Thaw the shrimp in cold running water
8. When the mushrooms are almost cooked, add the shrimp, kale, zest, and wine
9. Cover and simmer for a few minutes until kale is steamed through
10. Spoon the scampi on to some polenta, drizzle with EVOO, zap with some lemon juice, sprinkle some salt and pepper on and then stuff it in your face.

Hamburger Quiche

So I've been trying to come up with new and different ways to use ground beef recently because it's cheap and I am broke... well that's a topic for another blog, but broke is a good word for now. Anyway, I often get inspiration from staring in my cupboards and/or freezer and thinking, "What do I have stuffed in a corner that needs to be used?" or I start with one idea and then it progresses from place to place to place.

So the other night I had a couple things going on in my brain... I had thought perhaps it would be a breakfast for dinner night because we had eggs, and then I remembered I had 3kg of ground beef sitting in my fridge that I needed to divide and freeze which I had picked up during the glory that was our recent Costco trip. So, eggs and ground beef it was! What the heck can you make from eggs and ground beef other than cheeseburger pie (which I had recently made) or some crazy random scramble? Usually at this point in my musings I ask the Google. The Google tells me a lot of things and I have a pretty good relationship with it. It tries not to steer me too far off base, but every once in a while gives me some shiny distractions to feed my (imagined) ADD.

On this occasion, the Google wasn't really being that helpful, so I went to the old standby allrecipes which, it turns out, was also not that helpful. The problem I was running into was that egg is used as a binding ingredient in almost all meatball, hamburger and meatloaf recipe out there which started making searching annoying. Anyway, I ended up going to the other old standby of staring into the freezer at which point I saw some pie shells that I had cleverly picked up for such an occasion and ... BLAMO! Inspiration hit me like a stack of quarters in a sock. There will be QUICHE TONIIIIGGGGHHHT! (please say that in your head in the voice of Inigo Montoya).

Alright, I have used this quiche recipe before with large success, so I took it as my starting point and then kinda meandered down the "hey this might taste good with that" path that often leads to culinary tasties being created in my kitchen.

First step - veggies. I'm thinking you can really go out on a limb with this, but I happened to have onion, mushroom, red pepper, and fresh baby spinach on hand. There are a lot of other things that would work just fine, but I'll list nifty variation ideas at the end. For now let's stick to what I actually did. I slap chopped. Yup. I do own a big food processor. I also own several knives, and am fairly talented at slicing and dicing food while managing to spare body parts. However, I was in a mood, and the slap chop - although it is certainly not the best product in the world - is most definitely therapeutic since you really have to ream on it to get it to work the way Vince would like you to think you can with one finger. Ok, so first I whacked an onion, several mushrooms and a red pepper (in stages, obviously... the slapability is severely limited by volume). Then tossed the onion in a more hot than medium pan which had a glurp or two of olive oil in it. Sauteed that for a bit - I'm not super sure why, but the real cooks on TV always give the onion a head start, so who am I to question - and after the onion was well on it's way, I carefully got the mushrooms and pepper successfully into the pan from off  of the cutting board without dumping half of it on the stovetop. Small victories, people. It's how I get through the day.

Alright, so... sauteed the veggies till they were mostly cooked then seasoned them with a little salt and pepper, turned the pan down a bit to just under medium, then put several large handfuls of spinach on top of the cooking veggies and put the lid on to wilt. If you are using fresh spinach, you want to use a LOT because it's good for you and will wilt down to almost negligible amounts. Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 375F or so.

A few minutes later, I got impatient and just stirred the spinach down into the veggies and dumped everything into a bowl for the time being. Pan back up to hot, and TSSSSSSSSSSS on goes the ground beef. Woohoo! Now the house starts smelling domestic! Nothing smells more like "dinner is cooking" to kids and a man than beef and onions being sauteed. Too bad I was making this mid-afternoon to reheat for dinner and I was alone to smell the domestication wafting around. Alright, so brown the beef. Don't burn it. Can you handle that? Good to hear. When the beef is brown it's time to take it off the heat and start assembling the quiches. If you like to be all crazy and willy-nilly then feel free to mix the beef and veggies together beforehand, but I always feel more chef-like when I layer things. Also, it makes for (imagined) OCD happiness. Alright then. I didn't pre-bake the pie shells because I'm lazy, but you can if you like... I think it will likely make them a bit crispier, but when you're using generic brand frozen pieshells, the quality of crust is not forefront.

The quantities I used were enough for 2 pieshells (one for now and one for freezing) so adjust accordingly. In each shell I spread a layer of veggies, a layer of beef, and then a lot of grated cheese. I was feeling like it might need a little sumthin-sumthin so I dotted small spoons of cream cheese all around the top before the cheddar layer. Also from our happy fun time at Costco, hubby had picked up an insanely large tub of flaked parmesan which I will be using for a while yet, so I dotted some of that around too. Now, for the quiche part. I actually used 8 eggs, but it was too much, so let's pretend I used 6 eggs. Beat them up with a whisk, poured in around a cup or so of milk and then beat it all together. If I had half and half or even coffee cream I would have used that, but I didn't, so milk had to do. I am not a fat cutter. Moderation! Next - pour the egg mixture fairly carefully over the pies. This can be a messy operation, so I always put the pieshells on a foil lined baking sheet because I always overestimate the filling and end up with egg spillage. It's not a big deal, just make sure there's something there to catch the overflow and you're fine.

Your oven should be ready - pop them in and set the timer for around 40 minutes. You know this one is done when it passes the toothpick test - jab a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean you're good to go - if it comes out with half cooked eggy bits stuck to it, it's not done yet. It should look something like this:

An inside view:

The verdict:
This was a very good base recipe and can be served as is or tweaked. There isn't a whole lot of super stimulating flavour going on here, but it is yummy and subtle in a comfort food kind of way without beating you over the head. The kids ate it, either the first time or the second time depending on which one. The adults enjoyed it too, it worked great for a "leftovers for lunch" meal.

The ingredients (enough for 2 quiches):

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• small onion
• 8 - 12 mushrooms (around 4-5 oz)
• a red pepper
• a few cups of fresh baby spinach
• a pound of ground beef
• 2 frozen pie shells
• 1.5cup grated cheddar
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1/4 cup parmesan (real! not that crumbly powder nonsense)
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup milk (or cream)
• salt
• pepper

The short version:

1. Dice the veggies
2. Sautee the veggies, onion first. 
3. Wilt the spinach into the veggies in covered pan.
4. Put the veggies aside for a few minutes, turn on the oven to 375 and brown the beef in the pan
5. Layer the veggies in the frozen pie shells
6. Layer the beef on top of the veggies
7. Layer various cheeses on top of the meat
8. Beat the eggs and milk
9. Slowly pour the egg mixture over all the other ingredients
10. Bake for about 40 minutes until the toothpick test is passed.

Variation ideas:

• Tex-mex it up - you could easily put some corn and salsa into the veggie mix, some chillies or jalapenos if you're brave (or Mexican) too. I've successfully used that nacho flavoured cheese-like chip dip stuff in similar recipes too, possibly in place of cream cheese here
• Tomatoes in the veggies might add a little twist - try Italian seasoned diced tomatoes - add some tomato paste if you really want a lot of flavour (tomato paste tip: I only ever use a couple of tablespoons at a time, so I spoon the rest out of the tin about 1tbsp at a time on to cling wrap and make little packages, then just pop them in the freezer so I have it on hand when I need it)
• Different cheeses - All hard melty cheeses would work well, cottage cheese instead of cream cheese, even blue if you wanted to go that direction.
• Different veggies - anything you have, really. Carrots, corn, peas, any greens, chopped green beans, mushroom varieties, etc.

Coconut Pork Chops with Peanut-Coconut Sauce

Alrighty, so this is the recipe that inspired me to start a food blog. Apologies for the bizarre grammar and tone - I originally posted this for a group of close friends, and I'm doing a very weak re-edit instead of a proper rewrite.

Scroll to the bottom for the ingredient list/recipe...


I had pork chops. Pork chops are cheap, which is very good around here these days. We've been eating a lot of pork chops so I wanted to find something different to do with them. Eventually I will put up some of my go-to recipes, but on the night in question, I wanted something new and different. I didn't have one recipe that I tweaked this time, I instead spent an hour or so looking at various recipes that used elements that interested me and combined a few ideas into something that turned out relatively tasty. 

I had 4 rather thick boneless pork chops, but there was enough sauce for double that... here's how it went:

First, breaded the chops by dipping them in egg and then coating them in a mixture of bread crumbs and flaked coconut into which I had put a few screws of ground pepper, a pinch of cayenne and a pinch of curry powder. I tossed that in the fridge for a few hours because I had to go pick up the fam, but I'm sure you could do it immediately before cooking.

The sauce, I used a can of coconut milk, about half a cup or so of peanut butter - we just had generic sandwich peanut butter instead of yummy natural peanut butter and it worked just fine. Then I splashed a couple teaspoons or so worth of fish sauce in, and the juice of a lime. Put all of it on the stove and boiled it for a little bit, then I strained it and tossed it in the fridge for a bit. (If I had any ginger or garlic I probably would have used some, but it was grocery day and I didn't). I strained it because it was a little curdly looking due to the fact that I dumped everything in and boiled it - but some of the quick research I've done says it is probably best to gently cook sauces that may curdle. Either way, I just strained the chunky bits out and it tasted fine. Really.

So skip to later on...

I put some plain basmati rice on the stove, I've been addicted to brown rice for so long I forgot how nicely sometimes a white rice compliments certain meals.

Took the chops out of the fridge and let them sit for maybe half an hour while I tried to clear enough space to work with and heat up a pan to fairly hot - like 7ish on the electric dial, and made sure my thick pan actually GOT that hot. Splooshed some oil in the pan and browned the chops for about 4-5 minutes on each side. Gotta watch that the coconut doesn't burn, but it will toast nicely and smells like lovely toasted coconut. With thinner chops I probably would have cooked them for less - the object at this point not being to cook them through, just to brown the top and bottom.

As soon as they were brown on both sides, I dumped the sauce into the pan, put a lid on it and turned it down to about 3 and left it to simmer for about half an hour (till the rice was done). Flipped them over at the halfway point. (could have baked them in the oven after browning, but this way I only used one pan instead of a pan and a casserole dish). Note: when you dump the sauce in, don't forget to use a wooden spoon to scrape up all the bits stuck to the bottom of the pan and incorporate them into the sauce.

On the side:
The white basmati rice was perfect. I was a bad mommy and didn't do vegetables. Boo me. I'm sure my kids will live.

The Verdict:
YUM. The $5 Walmart chops were like butter. Tasty coconut-coated pork-butter smothered in peanuty happy sauce. The kids totally dug this one, because it used flavours that are tasty treats to them. Hubby and I loved how soft and perfectly cooked the chops were. I'm just that good, folks.

Ingredient list:

• 4 - 8 pork chops (as long as you have a pan big enough) *yes, I'm quite sure you could use chicken instead of pork
• a can of coconut milk
• about half a cup of peanut butter, any kind
• juice of a lime (do yourself a favour and never use reallime or reallemon in recipes. They're around $0.37 each... squeeze them yourself)
• couple splashes of fish sauce
• couple grinds of a pepper mill
• pinch of cayenne
• pinch of curry
• bread crumbs - 1/4 - 1/2 cup
• about the same amount of unsweetened flaked coconut as bread crumbs
• a beaten egg
• enough rice to make everyone happy. Basmati worked great.

could also add but I didn't because I'm lazy/didn't have on hand:
-some garlic, maybe a clove minced
-some ginger - about a tbsp or so minced

The Short Version:

1. Coat the chops first in beaten egg, then in a mixture of bread crumbs, flaked coconut, a pinch of pepper, pinch of cayenne, pinch of curry, just pinch some things that will taste nice with a coconut-peanut flavour base, really
2. Brown the chops
3. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, slowly heat the coconut milk, peanut butter, fish sauce, lime, ginger, garlic until it's hot and combined.
4. When the chops are browned, dump the sauce in, scrape up the bits, put a lid on the pan, crank it down to simmer, and cook for half an hour or so, flipping the chops over at the halfway point.
5. Eat, drink, be merry.

Honey Balsamic Fig Chicken

One night last week as I was having my daily, "What the Eff is for dinner?" moment, I was digging around online for a spinach/chicken based recipe (the results of which I may post at a later date), when I came across some recipes for chicken breasts stuffed with figs. I made a mental note that went something like "hey, I have chicken breasts and figs, I should look into that another day".
That day came up about 48 hours later when I needed to use the breasts I'd grabbed at Wally's. No, I was not randomly grabbing women at Walmart. They had chicken on sale. Get your mind out of the gutter, perv.

Ok, so I had chicken and dried figs, and really wasn't in the mood to be stuffing and rolling breasts, because that can be a bit of a finicky operation and I wanted something a little more 'quick and dirty'. As per usual I dug around online for a while and found a recipe here that I started from and did some tinkering. Generally, I tinker based on available ingredients and general laziness. Tinkering with established recipes makes me feel like I'm getting all cheffy and increases my domestication faction just a little. The thing about that particular recipe that really turned my crank is that it involved pounding the breasts out with a mallet. One of the best things about cooking when you have 2 kids under the age of 4 (and their associated father) around is WHACKING THE POOP out of some meat. I love meat whacking recipes. Cooking therapy.

Anyway, I ramble and digress. It's my thing. Scroll to the bottom if you just want the recipe without the diatribe.

So, on with it then...

Unroll a long stretch of plastic cling-wrap, long enough to go double over your chicken breasts once they are smooshed. Put your chicken down on the plastic and fold it over the top so it's all covered and then when you get into the therapeutic and primal pounding of flesh you don't get raw bits of chicken flying all over your kitchen, into the backsplash, on the appliances, up under the cupboards, etc. It defeats the purpose of letting out your frustrations if you have to turn around and detail your kitchen as a result. Ok, so whack your chicken. Recipes always say "pound until they are XX inches thick". Do not get a ruler, don't be ridiculous. Just beat it until you feel better and they're all about the same thickness throughout. Try to stop before you turn them into a fine paste.

Take a breath. You are now zen and may continue with the actual cooking part.

Alright so dredge the meat in some flour that you cleverly spiced up with some stuff. I used onion powder and since I lacked tarragon, I shook some herbs de provence in there because that is one of my favorite magic ingredients. Put a pan on and crank it up. You want to brown the dredged meat, so you want it fairly hot. Not max, you're not boiling water, but I usually go to about 7 on my stove. Can I just say that I love my glass top? I don't feel as awesome and dangerous as I would if I had a gas range, but you can't have everything.

Alright, brown the meat. Do you need directions for that? Use butter. Not margarine, that stuff will kill you. Use butter to brown meat! Cut it with a little oil if you want, it allows the temp to get higher and the butter doesn't burn as much. At least that's what I learned one day on a cooking show a few years ago, so now I just state it as fact. Generally about 4 - 6 minutes a side depending on how angry you were when you started pounding and how hot your pan is, etc. If in doubt, cut through one and see if it's cooked. You're not serving in a restaurant, your kids don't care if there's a cut mark where you checked done-ness. You will probably need to do 2 batches of chicken because you don't want to totally crowd out the pan, and the only downside of meat whacking is it increases surface area thus reducing the number of pieces you can cook at once.

In the meantime...

Put your balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan and boil it. If you are using dried figs, I would chop them up now and toss them in so they have more time to kinda reconstitute. If you are using fresh figs, hold off till after you reduce the vinegar. Once you get it boiling, reduce the heat to about 3ish so it simmers. It will smell like a vinegar factory, if you didn't already have the hood fan on because of the browning chicken, now is the time to turn it on. Your hubby will be all "What the heck are you doing in there?". Tell him to shut it and mind the kids, the vinegary taste will be gone once we're finished. Reduce the vinegar until it gets pretty syrupy. If you're unsure, dip a spoon into it and watch it drip off. If it kinda clings approximately like pancake syrup but not quite as thick as honey, you're good to go. If you haven't tossed the figs in, do that now. Also put a couple large squirts of honey and a large chunk of butter and stir it in till it's mixed and melted and stuff. I shook a little more herbs de provence in the sauce too. Worked just fine. If karma is on your side, the chicken and the sauce will be done around the same time. Serve the chicken with the sauce spooned on it.

On the side:
While things were browning and reducing I realized we needed some veggies, so I quickly hacked up a few carrots, an onion and a red pepper or two, sauteed them in butter in a hot pan till they were cooked and then candied them up a bit with a little honey to match the main dish. Worked nicely.

The verdict:
Loved it! The flavour is not at all vinegary and not too sweet. It's kind of rich and sweet-ish and yummy - almost raisiny. It very strongly reminded me of my Grandma's chutney that I now need to get the recipe for from my mom. The kids even ate it, although little miss drama made a scene about it, because she's 3, but she did eventually eat it.

The ingredients:

• 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
• 1/2c flour
• a dash or 2 onion powder
• a few dashes of herbs de provence or tarragon or basil or something along those lines
• 1/2c balsamic vinegar
• 6 tbsp butter (2tbsp to brown the chicken in, 1/4c or so for the sauce)
• 3 tbsp honey (aka a couple large globs)
• 5 or 6 figs, dried or fresh, chopped up into bits

The short version:

1. Pound out the chicken
2. Dredge the chicken in a mixture of flour, onion powder, herbs de provence, etc.
3. In a large frying pan brown the chicken in butter in 1 or 2 batches
4. In a small saucepan boil and reduce the vinegar to a syrup
5. Stir in the chopped figs, butter, honey, bit of herbs
6. Serve chicken with the sauce spooned over it