Back to the Kitchen!

The velvety lemon and butter white wine sauce clinging to my taste buds is the ultimate indication that my move to UCLA is now complete. Now with a hopefully decent schedule, I will once again be able to work in my favorite lab of all time, the Kitchen (and yes, that is with a capital "K").

For my first meal in the new place, I took the kitchen through some light paces with steamed and lightly sauteed asparagus, and chicken saltimbocca, one of my all time favorite dishes. I also chose this dish for it's relative simplicity. After all, getting back to cooking after subsisting on horrid mass-produced fast food cardboard could render some horrid results were I to push the envelope too much.

Chicken saltimbocca is the string quartet of the culinary world. Thin and crispy prosciutto, juicy and flavorful chicken breast, fresh sage, and a bright sauce can either be gastronomic nirvana, or an acrid,dry, burned mass of dissappointment. All it takes is a little timing, some attention to detail (not TOO much attention), and patience. Why patience? because this dish is so good I nearly drove myself crazy wanting to skip the last bit of cooking and just chomp the chicken and proscuitto down, then chug the sauce as a chaser. But I held things together pretty well (hiccup).

A little bit of seasoned flour, some chopping, mincing, steaming and sauteing, reduction and garnish and before you could say "Mama Mia" my plate was adorned with my prize. Food. REAL FOOD.

I would love to drone on about the magnificent dish I made this evening, but tooting my own horn is not a great hobby of mine. My glass of pinot grigio is beckoning to me, and all I will say about this chicken saltimbocca is that I bought TWO chicken breasts to cook. One for tonight, and one for tomorrow. Because flavor like this cannot be left to just one tasting.

Until out next meal together, from my matchbook apartment overlooking UCLA, I bid you all "Good Eating".