À la Sandy

What mom doesn’t love when their kids come home for dinner?  In my case, I’m fortunate to have a musician/culinary school grad who takes over the “plating” portion of the dinner for me. Years ago, while serving dinner to him and a couple guests, he observed me placing the meat, potatoes and and vegetable “clockwise” on the plate, like my mom always did – the way most dinners were served “back in my day.”  He said, “ma, what a perfect “Three Point Landing”  I asked, “what’s a Three-Point Landing?”  If you Google the term, you won’t find his definition .  You will find results such as this:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/three-point+landing

In Culinary School, he told me, his Instructors would refer to the “Three Point Landing” like this:

"3 point landing"

“Three major food groups” – Nothing wrong with the way it tastes — it’s delicious, but when food is presented like a work of art,  it somehow tastes better.   Anyway, my son “plated” for me that night, years ago and his presentation was beautiful.

Sometimes, if I’m hosting a dinner party and get stuck trying to decide how to present it, I’ll call him to get his advice.  If I’m lucky enough to reach him, he always has a winning idea.

So, when he came to dinner the other night, I made Chicken Marsala with whipped potatoes and sautéed baby carrots.  I asked for his help and this is some of the fun we created:

CHICKEN MARSALA

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 Cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 stick butter
1/4 Cup olive oil

Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a shallow dish, set aside.  Cut a long sheet of plastic wrap and lay it on the counter.  Place a chicken breast on top and fold the other half over.  With a mallet, pound the breasts until they are thin – about 1/4 inch.  Heat the olive oil and butter to medium high.  Place each cutlet into the flour mixture and dredge, shake off any excess, then place in the skillet to brown – just until brown on each side – about 4-5 minutes.  Don’t over crowd the pan. When golden brown, place them on a platter or cookie sheet.  When you’ve browned all four, lower the heat on the stove to medium prepare the Marsala Sauce.

Sauce:

2 large shallots -sliced
1 clove garlic – sliced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Cup “low salt” chicken stock
1 Cup Marsala wine – sweet
1 pound mushrooms – sliced
1/2 stick unsalted butter – cubed
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 Cup Italian parsley – chopped
1/8 Cup chives – chopped

Wondra flour

Add the olive oil, shallots and garlic to the pan and sauté, just until soft.  Add the mushrooms and cook for a 2 minutes, or until brown.  Pour 1/2 Cup Marsala in the pan and scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any browned bits – this should only take a few seconds. Immediately pour in the chicken stock and cook for about a minute.   Add the remaining Marsala wine and salt and pepper.  I like to keep a container of Wondra nearby, in case the sauce needs a little thickening – it’s perfect for sauces and gravy, because it’s so fine, it doesn’t “lump” up.  Use it sparingly though – you don’t want this sauce to be too thick.  Return the chicken cutlets to the pan and cook for two more minutes.  Now add the cubes of butter and stir the sauce – this will thicken it and give the sauce a nice “finish”.

Note:  Best to keep the bottle of Marsala and the Wondra near the stove, in case you need to thicken, or thin the sauce before plating.

Just before serving, add the chopped parsley to the sauce.  Garnish the dish with the chives and a little more fresh chopped parsley.   Cheers!

chicken marsala