capers

as a result of spending a little too much lately, marcela and i are left making due with what's in the fridge until thursday. this is a good thing as it makes me concentrate my efforts and hone my skills. it's also good as it allows us to use up some things in the fridge thus preventing food waste, something i dislike more than even energy waste. so, since marcela had a half sandwich from THE COTTAGE leftover, i was on my own for my dinner...

knowing that marcela had her own dinner planned, i wanted to cook something that i know she's not a huge fan of. as i scoured the fridge, i came across some capers that i've barely touched since i bought towards the end of summer. i pulled out a chicken breast to thaw and began to plan a meal around capers and chicken. my results are as follows...

i got a pot of water going for some pasta and then heated up a skillet to brown the chicken breast. after cooking the chicken for roughly 4 minutes a side, i transfered it to the oven to finish cooking. i added some diced shallots and garlic to the frying pan and sauteed them for about a minute before adding just under a cup of chicken stock. i let that mixture reduce down to a couple tablespoons. now normally i'd add some whipping cream or heavy cream to this mix, but since the theme was to use up food in the fridge, i swapped the cream for some plain yogurt i used in a sauce this weekend. so i put a heaping tablespoon of yogurt into the reduced stock and then added a tablespoon of whole grain mustard and a tablespoon of capers. i mixed these together (lower the heat after the stock has reduced or you'll be left with paste!) and stirred them until fully warmed and mixed. then, i drained my pasta (linguine was what we had and i'd suggest using it for this dish) and added it to the sauce, stirring together before plating it. be sure to leave just enough sauce in the pan to drizzle over the chicken. as a side note, i seasoned my chicken in lemon pepper and it's a great seasoning for this dish, or any chicken and capers dish!

this picture is of a half eaten dinner, as you can see, and is the result of not planning for a post. i really didn't think this would turn out that great and wasn't really planning to share something i scraped together. however, it really ended up good and i'm just so fired up about cooking now and writing about it. not that i can write that well (or even cook that well) but i just love it. it's just so much fun to make eating an experience. forcing yourself to be resourceful and to take advantage of something we're so privileged to get to do. a minimum of 3 times a day none-the-less!! i feel like it's the best way for me to slow down and relax. anyway, i think this was good and definitely worth trying, especially if you've bought capers for a recipe and don't know how to finish them off! i should say that if you're not a salty taste or mustard type person, you may not like this dinner as it's pretty strong on those flavors!

in keeping with the theme, i added a picture of the wine we finished tonight. it was leftover too! and good!