All Burners Firing -- Sautéing: Week #3 Culinary Fundamentals

Chef Frederick is remarkable--the first teacher I've had who knows everything that is going on in his kitchen at all times without ever seeming like he's looking. Nothing escapes him. There can be 20 students busy cooking, but he knows what each is doing--and will call to the person in the back row that the angle of their knife against their steel is wrong, or warn someone at the end stove that their fry pan is starting to smoke--or in my case, he saw that I'd put my leftover Kalamata olive in the food waste bin instead of taking the time to search for the original bottle. I feel ashamed about that error, since I try to "reduce, reuse, recycle" at every opportunity and was more concerned with my workspace being neat than in being industrious enough to find the bottle after a cursory look for it. His keen observation is part of his being a great teacher--the other part is that he is clear, precise and practical about everything he says and does to teach us. He peppers his demonstrations with pragmatic hints on cooking technique from his years of being a chef. For example, have you ever had food stick to your sauté pan when it normally doesn't? It's all about having the pan hot enough before the food hits it. "If it's not sizzling, it's not sautéing."

A recipe from Chef Frederick's Culinary Fundamentals class:

Chicken Tapenade
1 airline breast (boneless breast with wing, up to first joint)
1/2 small zucchini
1 Idaho potato
around 1 cup vegetable oil (we used mix olive oil and canola)
1 Tbsp. butter
*4 garlic cloves, peeled
*1 roma tomato
*1/2 roasted red pepper
*2 Tbsp. capers
*3 Tbsp. Kalamata olives
*3 Tbsp. sundried tomatoes
*2 Tbsp. grated Manchego
*about 1/2 cup chicken stock
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
*the proportions are roughly 1:1 between the tomato and pepper, then 4:1 between the tomato and the other ingredients, you can adjust as you like. I like capers less, so added less capers.
**cut the top and bottom off

Prep and Mise en place:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Fill a large bowl with ice and water for a ice bath. Have a baking sheet lined with parchment paper ready for the potatoes. Put a small pot of water on the stove to boil. Have two fry pans ready--both need to be safe to go into the oven.
Cooking:
Garlic: Heat a saucepan with about an inch of oil in it to just below the smoke point and place the garlic inside. The garlic should bubble around the edges as moisture releases--keep an eye on it so that it doesn't burn. It should get carmelized to a golden brown color on the outside and be soft all the way through when it is cooked. Remove and set aside. Keep the oil for cooking later.
Potatoes: Cut the potato into wedges and put into a large mixing bowl. In a fry pan, pour some of the garlic oil, add the butter and melt. Pour over the potato wedges, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss until the wedges are coated on all sides. Place neatly on the baking tray and put into the oven. Bake about 10 minutes, then flip them over. They are done when a paring knife inserted into them meets no resistance.
Chicken: Pour some fresh oil into one of the fry pans to coat the bottom, then heat it until just before the smoke point--you will see the oil thin out and it will make a wave pattern when you tilt the pan. Add the chicken breast skin down and cook until the skin is nicely carmelized and golden brown (about a minute). Flip and cook for a minute on the other side, then put the it into the oven. Take it out when cooked through--about 3 minutes. Remove to a plate and let sit at least two minutes, to redistribute the juices inside, before slicing. Save the fry pan for deglazing later.
Tapenade: Roast the red pepper over a flame until well charred. Put into a container and cover so the steam will help release the skin from the flesh. When cool, rub the charred skin off. "Head and tail"**, slit open and remove the pith and seeds. Mince finely and put into a small mixing bowl.  Cut the stem end of the tomato out and make an "X" slit at the other end of the tomato. Pop the tomato into the boiling water just long enough for the peel to start to detach from the flesh of the tomato. Put the tomato into the ice bath to stop the cooking, when cool, it will be easy to peel the skin off from the top edges of the X. Cut into fourths and cut away the interior part with the seeds, leaving only the flesh of the outer tomato. Mince the tomato and add to the bowl. Mince the capers, olives, and sundried tomatoes, add to the bowl and mix. Taste and adjust, if it needs salt, add more olives. Put the fry pan that cooked the chicken back on the stove and add enough chicken stock to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook over low heat, scraping up the bits on the bottom of the pan and stirring them into the stock. Add the tapenade mixture and cook, adding enough stock to keep it juicy. When the tapenade is heated through, scoop a mound onto your serving plate. Top with the chicken. Add a bit more stock to the fry pan and reduce by at least half.
Slice the half zucchini into rounds. In a second fry pan, add a bit of the garlic oil and fry on both sides until golden brown. Mound a bit of the cheese on each and put briefly into the oven to melt it. Place the zucchini rounds on your serving plate. Drizzle the reduced sauce on top of the chicken. Garnish with potato wedges.

Wine Pairing: If it had been home instead of class, I would have enjoyed it with a glass of the Terredora Falanghina we had on our wine tour in Naples.