Friday, May 02, 2003

Have overslept by 48 minutes.  STOP. Briefly – Eric’s Spicy Thursday.  STOP. Poulet en Marinade, Frit -- French Marinated Batter-Fried Chicken.  STOP. Excellent work.  STOP. Okay, not going to be able to keep up this particular gimmick. So Eric made the French fried chicken, and it was good.  He came home in the middle of the day to marinate the chicken.  He bought skinless semi-boneless chicken breasts, because he wouldn’t have time to skin the chicken, which the recipe asked him to do, on his lunch break.  So that was a little odd.  He marinated the chicken in a half cup of lemon juice, a small sliced onion, a minced garlic clove, four whole cloves, two bay leaves, thyme and pepper.  When I came home, he was crashed out on the couch waiting for Mishal Hussein, who never came.  Poor boy.  He looks rather racked out – may be coming down with something.  Anyway, he soldiered through, making a batter of flour, white wine and egg yolks, heating up a lot of oil in his frying skillet.  First he fried some sprigs of parsley, which really rocked his world – he spent the rest of the night dreaming up what else he could fry – lettuce?  A stick of butter?  The fried parsley was for garnish.  Then he fried the chicken.  Because the batter has so much liquid in it, and because he’d gotten the oil really, really hot, the oil made a big fuss and threatened to boil over, but it didn’t.  When it was all done frying, it was mahogany brown and crisp and lovely.  He served it with rice and the fried parsley and lemon – no vegetables because why avoid scurvy, really?  The lemon was meant to be squirted over the chicken, and I don’t know if it was that or the white wine in the batter, but it tasted very bright, and reminded me a bit of fried seafood.  A girl could get used to eating fried chicken once a week. So hey, guess what?  As of yesterday afternoon, I am the official voice of the World Trade Center Memorial Competition.  You can hear my dulcet tones at 1-800-696-0081.  If you’re interested in that kind of thing. Okay, now.  Headed to work.  Again. STOP.   7:50:10 AM    comment []