amateur cooking hour. chicken.

Oh gorgeous summer, what better way than to celebrate you then cook a feast? Granted, living in Canada we are lucky to be blessed with all four seasons, each one bringing it's own urge and inspiration to cook a feast. But there's something about summer... maybe it's all the colors of the different fruits and vegetables that come with summer, maybe it's the easier process of inviting friends over at the last minute to join you at your feast, or maybe it's all that summer wine. Either way, summer cooking is a blast. And here at Franz and Julia's pad, there's always a reason to be cooking a stellar meal, come join us won't you, FOR FRANZ AND JULIA AMATEUR COOKING HOUR.

like most of our adventures, it all began on a late morning while I was surfing the internet and Franz was doing a crossword puzzle when:

Franz

"I wanna braise something"

Julia

"okay"

Franz

"I wanna braise a chicken, how do I do that?"

Julia

"Many ways... easiest is to sear it and then boil it in chicken broth with water."

Franz

"..."

Julia

"Or you can cook it in wine."

Franz

"Lets cook it in wine."

So after browsing through the grocery store, we decided upon braising chicken thighs with a vegetable medley and polenta. A little French inspired, but isn't there a Julia Child in all of us?

STEP 1

Adorn tacky apron you got from your parents from Christmas and taste the cooking wine.

STEP 2

Heat a frying pan with oil. Wait until pan is hot before putting chicken in. Let it fry on one side till brown, about 5 minutes. Put chicken thighs in a medium sized cooking pan or pot. Cut up some shallots, red onions, leeks, lemons and mushrooms and place on top of chicken. Pour red wine on top of everything until pan is half full, fill the rest with chicken broth. Season with salt and pepper, cover and place into oven at 400 F. Apparently I haven't cut onions in awhile cause I had tears like that day Michael Jackson died rolling down my face.

STEP 3

Making polenta. Apparently some people are scared to make this delicious alternative to mashed potatoes, but trust me, it's easy and quick. Buy some regular cornmeal, bring a pot of water to boil and slowly add the cornmeal while whisking. You'll notice it gets quite thick very easily. Stir it around until all water has been absorbed and it comes off clean from the side of your pot while stirring. 

We then poured our cooked polenta into a pie pan to cool off. You can lay it out on a baking sheet as well, but we wanted our slices to be thicker. Franz then grated some parmesan cheese on top, stuck it in the oven for ten minutes for the cheese to melt and then let it cool again. In the end, we were able to cut pie shaped slices out like a pizza. Awesome.

STEP 4

Vegetable Medley! Our picks this evening were zucchini, leeks and asparagus. We just cut them into little pieces and then let them fry in butter for like 15 minutes. We also put in some fresh thyme just as a little punch. At this time we also started cooking our chicken at 475 F cause it wasn't boiling yet. We also started poaching some white pearl onions in boiling red wine and chicken broth. Those puppies cooked for 30 minutes until they were nice and tender.

STEP 5

Le sauce. After taking our chicken out (cooked for an hour), we put the pieces on a plate and covered them to stay warm. I took the leftover broth, red wine and everything else that the chicken had cooked in and threw it into a blender. I mixed it until it was smooth, and voilà, instant sauce. The flavors were out of this world. Nothing like a bunch of stuff that has been cooking together to give you a mouthgasm.

STEP 6

Plating time, aka eating time. This meal was an epic success. The chicken was so tender and juicy. The polenta had a nice texture compared to the velvety and buttery flavor of the vegetables. The poached pearl onion was a nice add on to bring a stronger and crisp flavor to the mix.

STEP 7

Of course, all meals must end with a dessert. After our epic french meal, we decided to abuse cherry season and opt for a simple and refreshing dessert. We cut up some strawberries and cherries and then whipped up some cream. All we added to the cream was vanilla, sugar and cinammon. So delicious.

After that, all there was left to do was pour another glass of wine and enjoy the season finale of so you think you can dance. Thanks for joining us!

Ta!

Julia Gulia