Last night, it was my turn to cook the main course at Pelusa Molina’s cooking class. I had rushed home from work in rush hour traffic on the 6th day of the subway strike and reached home 10 minutes before class started, just enough time to grab the ingredients and the stuff required to cook, and to walk the two blocks to Pelusa’s house. I was exhausted after a long day at work, having cramps, and sick of the endless subway strikes in Argentina. I arrived at 7.05pm, 5 minutes late for cooking class, and immediately started to unpack all the ingredients I had brought with me.
Oops, one big mistake though. I had left the chicken breasts which were to be used in the freezer the entire night, and they were ice-frozen. TERRIBLE MISTAKE. Pelusa had to defrost them for over 20 minutes in the microwave before they were thawed and able to be used for cooking, dragging our class behind schedule, and running the risk of cooking the chicken with the heat from the microwave. Lesson learnt : never again will I bring frozen chicken to class. NEVER again. And never will you either if you have to cook and don’t have time to defrost super-frozen chicken.
Now, let’s head back to the main course. We were supposed to cook rabbits, but I couldn’t really bear the thought of Bugs Bunny in my tummy, and Pelusa said I could substitute rabbits with chicken. Thank god.
So, here’s what we cooked. It was SPECTACULAR. A feast for our stomachs, a complete delight (although I must say a hell lot of work!)
CHICKEN BREASTS & BUTTERNUT SQUASH PUREE (Serves 4)
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Ingredients:
1) 4 chicken breasts
2) 800g of onions
3) 100ml of white wine (make sure it does NOT say sweet wine)
4) 100g of milk cream
5) 3-4 stalks of thyme herb
6) 4 tablespoons of olive oil
7) Sal and pepper to taste
8) 1 butternut squash
9) 100g of butter
10) 1 cup of black sugar
11) 1 cup of pecan nuts
12) Jamaican pepper
Steps:
1) Slice onions thinly
2) Peel the butternut squash and cut it into medium-sized pieces, then place in a microwavable bowl and cover it with a transparent film
3) Heat the butternut squash in the microwave at 100% heat until it becomes soft enough to mash
4) Mash the butternut squash, adding Jamaican pepper, normal ground black pepper and salt to taste
5) In a buttered glass bowl for the oven, put in the butternut squash puree and spread black sugar over it, covering every inch of the puree surface
6) Arrange pecan nuts mouth-down and some small cubes of butter on the sugar layer, and heat in oven at 165 deg cel for 10 minutes
7) Remove fats from chicken breasts, and cut each chicken breast into half
8) Marinate chicken pieces with salt and pepper, and then sear the pieces in a non-stick frying pan until both sides are golden brown
9) Remove chicken from pan, and cook sliced onions in the same oil remaining in the pan until onions turn transparent
10) Add in the stalks of thyme and pour in the wine, letting it cook until onions turn slightly caramelized brown
11) Add in the cream and mix well
12) Return the chicken to the pan with onions and sauté for a few minutes, then serve hot with butternut squash puree
Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Butternut Squash Puree (thanks to Pelusa who arranged the ingredients so nicely) :
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