Sunday, April 28, 2019

Chicken Marsala



If he doesn't have you going around talking with an Italian accent then something has happened to your childish sense of play. What happened? Did it die? Did you outgrow it? Is it locked in a closet? Did you smother it with a pillow? 

You are going around talking with an Italian accent? What's wrong with you, got a  Peter Pan complex or something? 

You could do this with one pan. 

Just keep taking stuff out and build up crud in the pan.

And you could add pearl onions. 

Or any other vegetable that you like. 

And you could use a roux instead of a flour slurry to build up flavors as chefs like to do, and have the flour thoroughly cooked on direct heat instead of through liquid. 

See, he added flour already to the chicken and fried it so that should be sufficient to slough off and thicken the sauce, but it wasn't enough. So now with the slurry he's got a goopy kind of thickener with no fried-on Maillard built up layered composite (cancer-causing) flavors to it. Then all that crap stuck to the non-stick pan, the mushrooms, the chicken, the roux, is deglazed with Marsala and hydrated with chicken stock to desired viscosity. Viola! 

I meant to say "wha-la!" One pan. 

Come on, that's funny. I said that to a Caucasian dude with a Latino dude standing next to him who cracked up. I wasn't even talking to him. Which cracked me up back because it's French not Spanish. I wasn't expecting anyone to appreciate my silliness. But he did.

And so did the other Spanish speaking guy at the same place. They were selling sausage with the word "lingua" in its name and I asked him if it has tongue in it. Because that seemed really weird. He looked at me strangely then said, "No. It does not contain tongue, but you know, I thought the same thing." That makes us kindred spirits, I guess,  in our misinformed language-based curiosity. As children try to figure stuff out.

4 comments:

ndspinelli said...

Chicken marsala is almost always my brides request I make for her birthday. Easy and tasty.

MamaM said...

If he doesn't have you going around talking with an Italian accent then something has happened to your childish sense of play. What happened? Did it die? Did you outgrow it? Is it locked in a closet? Did you smother it with a pillow?

When it comes to playfulness and curiosity, child-like behavior in adults is different from childish behavior.

In reality, child-like behavior tends to be intriguing, fun, inviting and connective, especially so when there is also a sense of freedom and order present.

Childish behavior in adults is a fairly good indicator that something vital did die, was locked in a closet, or smothered with a pillow. Childhood and adolescent experiences of trauma, abuse, betrayal or powerlessness that were not acknowledged or processed with an empathic witness tend to result in childish acting out or repetition behavior with a self-centered focus that demands attention, invites drama or leads to polarization rather than mutual engagement.

MamaM said...

Maybe I'll ask for it for my birthday, and we'll talk in Italian accents while making it. The accent drew MrM's attention as I was playing the video and he came over to watch, saying it looked good.

ricpic said...

I love this kind of Italian dish more than the red gravy dishes. Veal a la Francaise is a kind of cousin of Chicken Marsala. Similar subtle mix of flavors. And hard to mess it up! That's the best part.