Tarragon - Retro Food For Modern Times

09
Jun
2020

Meredith Baxter’s Tarragon Chicken

I had the shock of my life while doing research for this post. Seriously. More about that later! This was DELICIOUS!!!! The recipe for Tarragon Chicken recipe was sent to me by the lovely Jenny over at Silver Screen Suppers. It will form part of her Murder She Wrote Cookbook and, on taste alone, should be one of the standout recipes of the book!

This is the most delicious comfort food!!! So warm and hearty and tasty and…OMG….I would make this dish every week if I could. Unfortunately, I used the last of our fresh tarragon to make it so, until I can either find some fresh tarragon in the greengrocer or plant some more I will not have it again. It almost makes me want to cry.

I have some dried tarragon in the cupboard but it is really no substitute for fresh!

This is what my tarragon plant looked like before I took all of the good leaves to make this! Poor little thing!

I served my tarragon chicken with garlic bread instead of the suggested rice and it was so good. The combination of the lovely juices from the chicken with mopped up with the crusty, garlicky, buttery bread was perfection!!! I heartily recommend this as an alternative!!!

But now let me tell you what happened when I went to research David Birney!!!!!

Spelling is important!

My main reference for Meredith Baxter is as Elyse Keaton from the very popular tv sitcom Family Ties. The show featured two hippie parents, Baxter and Steven Gross, trying to deal with their ultra-conservative Regan-supporting son Alex, played brilliantly by Michael J. Fox. The show was pitch-perfect. Funny, poignant, clever, sharp…just look at these reviews!!!!!

I also knew that Meredith Baxter came out at some time in the 2000’s. I remember thinking at the time both “You go girl, finally you get to be your true self in public and let the homophobes go fuck themselves” and also “I’m so sad that you didn’t feel that you could do this earlier in your life”.

So, whilst I was aware of Meredith Baxter, David Birney, I knew not at all. So much so that when I first googled him I incorrectly spelled his name as David Birnie and spent a while there thinking that MB had been married to an Australian serial killer!

Turns out he is allegedly a wife-beater so you know, maybe my initial thoughts that he was a dick were not totally unfounded. Let’s not waste any more time on him.

The Recipe

It’s so good.

I did not have to remove my chicken and thicken the sauce, it was thick enough just from cooking. Apart from that, I followed the recipe to the letter and it was fabulous!

Leftovers are also amazing in a jaffle the following day! Sorry for the terrible photo but if you don’t eat that jaffle piping hot, it’s not really a jaffle! I would also LOVE to see that tarragon chicken in a pie.

Look at me…I’m already getting ideas for the next time I make it!

Thanks, Jenny for the recipe! It was truly a winner winner chicken dinner!

Have a great week everyone. Take care and stay safe!

20
Jul
2018

Tomato and Tarragon Soup with Sun Dried Tomato Bread

categories: Bread, Soup, Tarragon, Tomatoes

Bonjour mes amis, aujourd’hui nous faisons une soupe de tomates inspirée par un jardin d’herbes françaises.

It is actually a tomato and tarragon soup but the French word for tarragon is “estragon” which I kept reading as “oestrogen”. That’s not generally an ingredient I want in my soup so we’ll keep it English!

It also seems to be a particularly French time of year, Bastille Day just, gone, the World Cup victory and the Tour De France. And of course, nothing says celebrate like soup right? Don’t answer that.

Whatever, this soup is super! 😏

Back in the summer, I grew both tarragon and tomatoes in the backyard. But it wasn’t until late in the season after the tomatoes had finished that I came across this recipe for tomato and tarragon soup. I had never heard of that combination before – tomatoes and basil? Definitely. Chives – most certainly. Parsley – why not? But tarragon? Not so much.

Since then, I have learned that they are both ingredients in a Sauce Choron which is a tomato flavoured Bearnaise sauce. The only comment I have to make about that is “What took me so long?” Next summer, Salmon with Sauce Choron will be featuring on the menu but for the meantime as the cold of winter sets in, I will remind myself about the joys of summer produce by remembering how good this soup was!

The tarragon here is homegrown even if the tomatoes are not.

This was a lovely soup; light and very fresh. It tasted of summer! The recipe came from a book called Recipes From a French Herb Garden by Geraldene Holt.

Next month, I am heading to France. On my travels, I will be visiting the Ville Rose (Toulouse). And then on to Bordeaux. Where I definitely will not be sampling any of the local wines!!!! 😉 Given it will be the height of summer when I am there, I wonder if there will be a tomato and tarragon soup on the menu anywhere?

This was a lovely soup; light and very fresh. It tasted of summer! It is so cold and miserable here in Melbourne at the moment but even looking at these photos brought back memories of warmer days and anticipation of the warm weather ahead in Europe!

I served the soup with a sun-dried tomato bread which I feel is a very 90’s adaptation of the Spanish Pan con Tomate where bread is rubbed with olive oil, garlic and tomatoes. In this version, I chopped up some sun dried tomatoes, some garlic, added some finely chopped basil and a little bit more tarragon and mixed these through some butter. I then spread this onto some rustic, toasted bread and popped it under the grill until golden.

Teamed with the soup it was a double delight of tomato-ishness. And tarragon-yness

Here is the recipe for the soup:

And the bread:

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Sun Dried Tomato Bread

Print Recipe

Delicious herby, garlicy, tomatoy bread, perfect for dunking into soup!

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

2 slices of rustic style bread
1 tsp butter
4 sun dried tomatoes, finely chopped
1/4 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp mixed chopped herbs, (I used basil and tarragon)
Salt and pepper to taste

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Instructions

Combine the butter, cheese, tomatoes and garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Spread over the bread.
Transfer to a baking tray and place under the grill until golden brown.

Have a great week everyone!

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06
Jan
2016

REPOST – Two Ways With Leftover Chicken

categories: A Moveable Feast, Avocado, Chicken, Chipotle, Leftovers, Lunch, Starters, Vol Au Vent

Happy New Year!

I hope the festivities were wonderful and the champagne was flowing freely!!! The only downside to all the partying is that invariably you end up with a fridge full of leftovers. This year we were inundated with leftover chicken so, if you ever find yourself in the same situation, here are two ways to use it up.

My first leftover chicken recipe uses one of my favourite retro ingredients, the vol au vent shell. (Sorry Glenda, still store-bought!)

And it’s simples – mix up a white sauce add some tarragon, stir in your chicken, fill your vol au vent cups, sprinkle on some cheese and in a couple of minutes you have a super cute little appetizer with which to kick off your next party!

My Chicken and Tarragon Vol Au Vents are based on a recipe I found in a Feast Magazine but can also be found here.

My next take on leftover chicken is a more modern Chicken, Avocado and Chipotle Tortilla which you can serve two ways.

I got this recipe from A Moveable Feast by Katy Holder where it was originally conceived of as a wrap. I made one of these and took it to work (yes, sadly I worked between Christmas and New Year). It was tasty but I am not a fan of the taste of cooked avocado and even putting the wrap into the sandwich press was enough to turn the taste from delicious to awful. If you like cooked avocado, or you want this all to yourself, this could be just the thing for you!

If however, like me you do not like the taste of cooked avocado, or you want to share the deliciousness, turn it into a “pizza”

Heat the tortilla until crispy, sprinkle the chicken, avocado and the chipotle salsa over the top, cut into slices and serve immediately to your guests as an appetizer. (Or eat it all by yourself! I won’t judge you.

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Chicken, Avocado & Chipotle Tortillas

Print Recipe

Two delicious ways with chicken tortillas

Author: Taryn Fryer
Yield: 1 1x

Ingredients

Scale

1 tortilla
1/4 cup chopped leftover chicken
1/4 avocado, roughly chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
1/4–1/2 chipotle chilli in adobo sauce (or to taste)
1 sprig of coriander (cilantro), finely chopped
1 tsp lime juice
Salt and Pepper
Toothpick

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Instructions

At least one hour before serving, make your salsa.
Discard the seeds from the tomato, mix with the onion, chilli, coriander and lime juice. Season to taste.
Set aside to allow the flavours to blend.
Just before serving, drain the salsa, neither of these recipes needs soggy tortilla!

For The Pizza

Heat the tortilla under the grill until it gets crispy.
Once the tortilla is crispy, take it out of the oven and top with the chicken, avocado and salsa.
Cut into slices and serve immediately.
Perfect with an ice cold beer!

For the Wrap

Warm the tortilla according to packet instructions, to soften.
Spread a line of chicken, a line of avocado and a line of salsa in the middle of the tortilla, leaving a 2 cm gap on all sides.
Fold in the bottom, rotate 90* and fold over one side then the other.
Tuck the remaining side of tortilla, securing with a toothpick.
Place into your sandwich press or under your grill and heat until the outside of the tortilla is golden and crispy.
Don’t forget to remove the toothpick before eating!

I wish you all the very best for 2016 and may it be the year all your dreams come true! Thank you for reading and commenting and being a part of my teeny corner of the internet. It’s a New Year – Let’s make it wonderful!

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08
Jan
2013

Retro Food for Modern Times – Strawberry Fields Forever, Part 1

categories: Mango, Strawberries, Tarragon, Vodka

Let me take you down ‘cos I’m going to...

…my local green grocer where they are currently selling trays of strawberries for $6. My sincere apologies to John Lennon for that absolute travesty but just in case you are not utterly awestruck by this, let me reiterate. A tray of strawberries for $6. That’s 16 punnets. For $6 dollars. The world may have not ended on December 21^st but it has surely gone mad!

How do farmers make any money when the (literal) fruit of their labour is being sold off at about 40 cents a punnet?

Maybe because the week before Christmas punnets of strawberries were selling for $4 each!

I know, it’s not the farmers, it’s the wholesalers and the grocery shop owners and all the people in between who add their mark up. The farmers probably got paid the same for the $4 strawberries as they did for the 40 cent strawberries.

My joy at my bargain buy lasted until I had to carry, not only all of my regular fruit and veggies, but an additional four kilos of strawberries, from the shop to my car. By the time I reached the car (it was a hot day and I had parked some distance away from the shop to get a spot in the shade), I’d stopped thinking “I’m the best shopper in the world! ” and “I’m in berry heaven” to “What on earth am I going to do with four kilos of strawberries?” and “How can four kilos of strawberries actually weigh a ton?”.

My first task, on getting home, was to sort the strawberries – a few in each punnet were overripe and were starting to get a bit manky. The perfect ones went into a colander and the fridge for eating. We have been feasting on these all week.

The almost perfect berries went into a bag and into the freezer whole. I puréed the somewhat bruised berries and placed them in 6 containers in the freezer where they will be great for smoothies, muffins, etc later in the year. Finally, my kitchen helpers, Oscar and Lulu, were on hand to dispose of the fourth group being the few badly bruised berries that were left.

We have been eating strawberries all week – by the handful whenever we feel a bit peckish; for dessert with cream (Mark) and ice cream (me) and for breakfast with mango and vanilla yogurt:

Strawberry, Mango and Vanilla Yogurt Breakfast

I have started making a strawberry liqueur based on the link below with some tweaks inspired by other recipes, most notably, I am putting the sugar in from the start.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/06/homemade-strawberry-liqueur-recipe.html

I searched high and low for tarragon yesterday; I went to three greengrocers and I could not find it for love or money. I decided to use basil instead.

I was so excited about making the liqueur and trying to track down the tarragon, that I completely forgot to check the other ingredients. I knew I had strawberries, I had vodka. I was searching for tarragon. And who particularly someone who bakes regularly, doesn’t have caster sugar? Me apparently. Grrr… Such a newbie mistake!!!

So today, I ducked into the supermarket to pick up the caster sugar and found piles of tarragon. As I had another recipe for tarragon and strawberries I was aching to try, I bought a bunch and pulled the basil out of my would be liqueur and popped in the tarragon and sugar. All the sugar sank to the bottom and when I tipped it upside down to mix it in, it made these drippy pale pink stalactite type things that looked awesome! The mixture is also already a fabulous pink colour. And it’s only Day 2. Imagine Day 30.

It’s Mark’s birthday tomorrow and the temperature is set to soar. Baking in my tiny kitchen when it’s anything above 30 degrees outside is not something I relish. So, I’ve decided that he will get a White Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Semifreddo in lieu of a traditional birthday cake. I’m aiming for quirky but cool. We’ll see how that works out. I also need to get busy making it. Which means that my strawberry and tarragon salad recipe will have to wait until the next post.

On a more sombre note, and speaking of temperatures soaring, many parts of Australia are currently experiencing devastating bushfires and my heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones, homes and belongings in this tragedy and to the brave people, many of whom are volunteers, who are so valiantly fighting the fires. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

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Tag: Tarragon

Spelling is important!

The Recipe

Sun Dried Tomato Bread

Ingredients

Instructions

Chicken, Avocado & Chipotle Tortillas

Ingredients

Instructions

For The Pizza

For the Wrap