So You Think You Can Cook

We all do it every year, stress over what to do for Valentine’s Day or wait until the last minute. These are my suggestions to the men out there about the “most important day in our lives” besides of course, our anniversary, our wife’s or significant other’s birthday, Christmas and Mother’s Day. I’m only going to share a few key words of advice. Make your reservation, order your flowers and book your babysitter early. This way you can woo your mate at work with the flowers in front of all her co workers, then have a leisurely dinner at the time that you want and have time to catch a movie. As a restaurateur, myself and my peers always try to create entrée’s that are quintessential for creating that perfect experience. After working Valentine’s Day dinner for 15 years, I have come to the conclusion that there is no one menu item that will completely satisfy everyone…except CHOCOLATE! Too bad we love it so much for dessert otherwise I‘d make a steak sauce with it. Hmmm, sounds interesting doesn’t it?

I’m sharing a Valentine’s Dinner menu special from my restaurant, Café 225 and we will be serving it as a dinner special for the month of February. I call it Mediterranean Chicken and Prawns. It consists of chicken breast and prawns sautéed with olive oil, artichoke quarters, calamata olives, capers, lemon, garlic, wine, fresh basil and tomatoes. I want to draw your attention to the lemon, wine, capers and garlic. This is used very often when preparing chicken, veal and seafood and something that I have in my refrigerator at home at all times. The use of the other ingredients adds and develops character to the dish and play with your emotions.

Procedures for this dish are simple and I’ll lay it out for you right now.

1. Heat your sauté pan to medium high heat, add the oil (4T), season and flour your chicken breasts (cut into smaller pieces on a bias for faster cooking), brown on all sides (until half way cooked), with the chicken still in the pan add your artichokes, olives, garlic, shrimp and capers.
2. Shake the pan for a few moments to coat everything with olive oil. Dust one teaspoon of flour onto the items in the pan. By doing this you are creating a roux (combination of flour and fat, in this case the olive oil). Allow the flour to cook for a few moments, but don’t allow the flour to brown.
3. Now deglaze the pan with white wine, say ½ cup. It will bubble and steam.
4. Scrape the pan to incorporate the wine and floured goodies.
5. Squeeze in juice from one lemon and add either fresh diced tomatoes or canned tomatoes or even tomato sauce or juice or paste…just enough to give the sauté some color. This is a fast dish so don’t cook for more than 3-5 minutes or the shrimp will shrink and become tough.
6. Check the flavor and add salt and pepper and fresh basil.
7. If you feel the sauce is too thick add water or chicken or clam juice. You’ll notice that the sauce thickens very quickly. When ready take off the fire. Your sauce should be a nice consistency with lots of goodies in it. I’ve specified the liquids for a 9 inch sauté pan which can serve 2-3 individuals.
8. Pour over pasta or serve with rice and enjoy.

Come see me or one of my cooks in February and we will walk you through this dish and answer all your questions. Trust me the ingredients are really forgiving. It just takes a bit of practice.

Send your ideas/recipes to:
Karl’s -So You think You Can Cook?
Valley Trends
121 E. Main St., Suite 302
Visalia, CA 93291
debra@visaliamarketing.com