Friday, January 15, 2010

chicken marbella... why is it not on any local menu?

Please ... can anyone tell me if there is a restaurant in Vancouver that serves chicken Marbella... made popular by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins of The Silver Palate fame?
Requested by friends and family to make this dish way too many times ... they love it so much.  Don't you want something else I ask? Unrelentingly good, each time I'm pressed to add more and more olives and prunes, okay, yes it's great.

Restaurateurs ... please add chicken marbella to your menu!

When in doubt make chicken marbella as I've never found anyone to not like it.  My top three Silver Palate recipes starts with this dish  followed by the spicy breakfast patties. I served  these as burgers at Real Food  using lots of fresh basil and grated ginger interchanging ground turkey with chicken.  The third favorite is the chocolate fudge sauce which became a must have holiday dessert for Christmas while I was a live-in chef. This sauce  served warmed and poured on homemade (hazelnut praline) ice cream  hardens on contact like an ice cream revel's chocolate coating. None can resist that! Put that on your menu restaurateurs pretty please.

When I was an apprentice chef at Le Crocodile Restaurant after graduating from the Pierre Dubrulle  Culinary school friends would ask for the tomato soup  you see in the pot on the back burner and the onion tarte but really kissed up for the chocolate mousse. Chef Michael Jacob and his recipes have continued to make me a popular host. 
I make the soup with home canned tomatoes .... treasures from BC gardens.
We still reach for our cook books and feeling the pages and seeing the scribbles and notes cannot be replaced ever, only added to.
Can you see where this is leading? Tell me about your cook books. I would enjoy a
journey through your cook books.
Tomatoes I have loved thanks to the Kitsilano Farmers Market. This Saturday Wise Hall Farmers Market, hurray!
This cauliflower cheese pie with potato crust comes from the Moose Wood cook book and is by far the top vegetarian request.  When I cooked for tree planters there was always a small vegetarian group in the bunch and we discovered all the meat eaters wanted some too.  That was when meat became the side dish. Now I must pop this pie in the oven . Another dish I would like to see on the local menu.

3 comments:

pTsaldari said...

I loved your site and the Mason jars and the fact that you grow your own tomatoes and can them. Lucky lady! I felt like I was in your kitchen and that I appreciate the fact that your site is so welcoming. Thank you for sharing. Shall return again. Cheers, PT
You can visit me at http://ptsaldari.posterous.com

Kelly said...

Your cauliflower cheese pie looks delicious! Do you have an exact recipe for that? Thanks for sharing :)

funkiefoodie said...

Dear Kelly,

My pleasure, and thank you for stopping by.

The recipe comes from Molly Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook.

It is an excellent dish to have any time and reheats well.

She has a new cookbook for beginner cooks titled

"get cooking".

www.mollykatzen.com