Nearly New Year's Dinner

My mom called earlier this week, and asked if we couldn't get together for a little pre-New Year's eve dinner, tonight. I thought that was a great idea, and started planning. Now, I am so incredibly full. Way, way too much food! But it was SO good.

Menu
Appetizer: Cured ham rolls with goat's cheese and apricots
Entree: Grilled fillet of beef with balsamic beetroot and potato au gratin
Dessert: Chocolate Creme Brulée
Coffee snack: Coconut cookie

The ham rolls are from Nigella's latest book, Feast. She makes them with Parma Ham, and figs instead of the dried apricots. I rather use plump, juicy apricots, and a cured ham that has a bit more taste than the Parma that can usually be found here. Tonight, I used a German kind - very good, and slightly smokey. You don't want the see-through thin slices here - thin, but not quite that thin. Just make narrow strips (halve the slices length-wise) and roll around half an apricot and a smear of good, ripe goat's cheese.

For the entree, I used my trusty Nordica Grill. Must say, I love this little appliance! It's very handy - not only is it great for grilling meat, it's also perfect for sandwiches. We had a dedicated sandwich maker before, but this is much better. Tonight, we had fillet of beef, really good, high-grade meat from Brazil. I sliced it thickly, seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper (mixture of black, white and pink) and grilled for about two minutes. Perfection. Sure, you don't get quite the same surface that you can get from a very hot pan and plenty of butter, but you get a very pure meaty flavor, and a lovely pink, oozy interior. (And no added fat!)

The beetroot was really interesting, and very good. I sliced six small beetroots thinly on my mandolin, and poached the slices in a mixture of balsamic vinegar (about 150 ml), honey (about three tablespoons) and a little bit of water. When the slices were cooked through, I lifted them out with a slotted spoon, added some salt, and let the solution reduce until about half remained. I added the slices back into the pan, added a few knobs of butter, and some chopped coriander. Yum!

My potato au gratin is the best I've had, and I have to share a proper recipe for it. It's very easy to make, and so worth it. It creates a creamy garlicky sauce, so you never really need to serve anything but a slice of meat and a salad with it.

Potato au gratin
7-8 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
1 large leek, sliced thinly
2-3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
300 ml whipping cream
300 ml milk (No sense using the low-fat stuff)
very fat pinch of salt
tablespoon of olive oil

Warm the oven to 225 degrees centigrade. (450 F, I believe.) Saute the leek and the garlic in the olive oil in a large pan. Add the milk and the cream, and a lot of salt. It should taste overly salty, as the potatoes will soak up most of it anyway. (I always need to add salt, I'm too wussy to add enough.) When it comes to the boiling point, add the potato slices, and let them boil slowly for about 10-15 minutes. They should become fairly soft (but certainly not mush!!) and most importantly, they need to release their starch. The liquid will become thick and creamy. When it does, tip into an oven-proof dish, and cook in the oven for about half an hour. Watch it though - it may start to get too brown on top, and needs to be covered with foil.

The brulee gets an entry of its own. Not that it was great, but.. interesting. Huh. I need to practise a lot more.

Small salad for lunch

I woke up late, and decided to skip breakfast since I'm just lounging around today anyway. However, I did want lunch. I really wanted pasta in creamy cheese sauce, preferrably with some leftover christmas ham, but I also had a yearning to play with my new mandolin, and my new cutting block. And there's just not that much cooking involved making pasta, so I decided to go with a small salad, too.

It's not much of a recipe. I had three overripe tomatoes that really needed using up. I dipped them in boiling water and peeled off their already wrinkled skins, because overripe tomato skin is just gross. I sliced them, placed in a bowl, and seasoned with freshly ground pepper. (White, black and pink, as it happens.) Some salt, too. I drizzled over some black currant balsamic vinegar, a lovely fruity slightly sweet vinegar that I picked up before christmas.

Next, time for the mandolin to play. I cut cucumber in tiny batons - julienne! - and seasoned with a spoonful of sugar and a little bit of salt. I placed this on top of the tomatoes... and well, that was it.

The pasta? I ate that before I had the time to take a picture. It wasn't very pretty, but it was good.

Thai food

As you all know, South-east Asia has been hit hard with tsunamis, and thousands of people are dead, or missing. A lot of Swedes are down there - the papers are talking about 2000 missing. Children are flown home without their families. Tragedy doesn't begin to describe what's happening down there.

I can't really find the peace to write about anything at the moment - not that I've had any culinary excitements the past week. Mostly leftovers from christmas - although I *should* blog about Swedish christmas food, I suppose - and I've had an awful cold that just won't go away. But tonight, we went to our local Thai takeaway restaurant, sort of in remembrance of all the people down there, and bought two dishes. They weren't that great - I've had a lot better there - but it was satisfying all the same. One was way too spicy, we could barely eat it - but it didn't matter that much. I'll order something else, next time.

The night before christmas...

In Sweden, christmas is celebrated on the 24th, and not on Christmas Day as in many other countries. Christmas Day is generally spent on the couch in front of the tv, unless you have a lot of family to visit. Since we got Per's family covered after our little trip to Motala, we're planning on the couch. But, before we get to that, there's actually christmas - the 24th. Tomorrow.

We're having a slow breakfast, and after getting ready, we're off to my parents for a small birthday celebration for mom. Then, christmas lunch at my sister Åsa and her fiance Peter. (Who, and I have mentioned this before, is a very celebrated sushi chef. I don't expect sushi at the christmas table though.) Then back to my parents to open presents.

I really should write extensively about what we eat at christmas, but I don't have the energy as I just had a huge big plate full of christmas food. Suffice to say, it's a lot. And it's good. (Or at least the parts of it that I make - there's a lot of traditional food that I rather not eat.)

The trip to Motala, by the way, was a partial success. We had a good time, but unfortunately last night's dinner ended with Per's grandmother being picked up by an ambulance and rushed to the hospital. It's not completely clear, but she most likely suffered from a small stroke. She'll probably have to spend the holidays at the hospital.

Off to inlaws

I thought I'd do a short post before we're off to Per's parents for two days. Tomorrow is Per's birthday and he wants to spend that with his family, so we normally go there this time of year. We'll be back in time for christmas though. Christmas evening - and that's when Swedes celebrate, NOT on christmas day - is my mother's birthday, so I always try to be home for that.

Anyway. I'll just share a recipe that I found over at Kate's Accidental Hedonist, that I made for friends on Friday night. Man, it was SO good! I augmented quantities quite a bit, and used pork fillet instead of pork chops, so here's my version of it: (and THANK YOU Kate, this was really amazing!!)

For four people:
2 small pork fillets (each weighing about one pound)
200 g gorgonzola
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
salt and black pepper
4 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced into eight wedges per apple
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup applecider vinegar
1 cup Riesling wine (I bet any white wine would work fairly well)
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cardamom (and for a more intense taste, use cardamom seeds rather than ground)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp butter

Heat the oven to 175 degrees Centigrade. (About 350 F) Get out your sharp knife, and score the fillets. Cut almost all the way down on one side, but be careful not to cut through. Flip open. Salt the meat, and set aside. Mix the gorgonzola with the walnuts, and add as much pepper as you'd like. Spread this onto the inside of the meat, taking care to concentrate in the middle and not getting any on the edges. Wrap the fillet back up, and secure with toothpicks. (Or be like me and not have any at home, having to resort for sharpened matches.)

Brown the fillets on all four sides, and then transfer to a roasting rack. Put into oven for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Saute the apple slices until they're a bit brown on both sides - but not mushy. Set aside. In the same skillet, add the vinegars and the wine. Let this reduce. Stir in the spices - and I would probably add a tablespoon of brown sugar at this point. Put in the butter at the very end.

Serve by cutting up the fillets into thick slices - the cheese will run a bit, but no worries. Add the apples, and pour the sauce on top. Enjoy!

We had this with roast potatoes, and it was a great pair. I bet it'd be good with regular rice, too. For dessert, we had a pineapple sorbet, that sadly was made from a slightly overripe pineapple. It lacked in acidity, but was still decent. No pictures - not very picturesque food - but another kitty pic.

Going bananas!

Or, should I say, where did my bananas go? I woke up this morning, and after a couple of intense hours of cleaning, I started making the yummy sounding Cardamom Banana Bread with Pistachios that Alice made for Sugar High Fridays #3. (Without pistachios though, it's nearly impossible to find non-salted pistachios here. I'm substituting walnuts.)

I was going the lazy route - as I so often do - and started mixing my butter and sugars in the food processor. I added the eggs. I was all set to add the bananas, turned around and... hey, where are my bananas? I had had two perfectly overripe bananas on the table, and I was sure I had seen them last night. And now? They were... mysteriously gone. Never having to think long before settling on a suspect, I called out to Per. "Oh, don't you remember? I told you I threw those out yesterday." I did not remember.

Per is now at the store, trying to find suitable replacements. I am sitting here, ingredients neatly gathered... and waiting. Meanwhile, enjoy a picture of the kittens. They are four weeks old now, and cute as buttons.

Loads of tomatoes - but no inspiration

Ok readers - I need your help. I'm having friends over for a simple supper on Saturday night, and I have no clue whatsoever what to cook for them. I do have, however, a large bowl of very ripe tomatoes. I need to use those up, in any case. Any ideas for me?

Cornbread – how I love thee

When I’ve been to the US, cornbread has been one of my favourite things to eat. It’s not at all eaten here, nor are really any other kinds of sweet bread. I made sure I had cornbread as often as I could when visiting, but sadly, I never learnt how to make it myself. Indeed, I had some vague notion that you could only make it from mix. (It says something about the people I’m generally staying with when I’m visiting – neither has been big on from-scratch-cooking.) Anyway, so I usually bought a couple of boxes of mix to take home… but there’s always an end to that.

So, when I was cooking for Thanksgiving, I read Nigella’s recipe in Feast for Cornbread stuffing with orange and cranberries. It included, naturally, cornbread. From scratch. I had my doubts, but whipped up a batch for the stuffing. It. Was. Perfect. Perfect. Incredibly super-delicious! Sadly, most of that batch actually had to go in the stuffing, but there was enough to spare one big slice for me, and a small one for Per. (Who is much less of a fan than I am, so I felt it was fair.) I liked it so much I had to make a second batch to serve just as cornbread muffins, with the rest of the meal. And now I want to make it over, and over again. I can’t believe it was so easy!

This is a recipe I really need to share – thank you Nigella, this is *it*!

Nigella’s cornbread (from Feast)

175 g polenta (or cornmeal – this was a real revelation for me. Cornmeal is not available here, but polenta certainly is. You can use *that*?? was my first thought.)
125 g plain flour
45 g sugar
1 fat pinch of salt (as Nigella aptly puts it – I use salted butter, so I use a little less)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 egg
45 g melted butter (she specifies unsalted, but salted worked perfectly)
250 ml full fat milk (I’ll try it with a less fat milk next time, since I never have full-fat in the house.)

Mix the dry ingredients. Beat the egg a little bit, and mix with butter and milk. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, mix lightly. And that’s it! Pour into a suitable mold – I made the first batch in a regular springform pan since it was just going to get crumbled for stuffing anyway, and the second batch in muffin tins. Bake at 200 degrees Centigrade for 15-20 minutes. The cornbread should be golden, and start pulling away a little from the sides.

Cheesecake - not so good.

Ok, so I tried the cheesecake I made for Sugar High Friday - and guess what? It wasn't great. At all. Somehow, it tasted really dry, and I can't really figure it out. I took it out while it was still wobbly and... if anything, I was afraid that it wouldn't hold together. The base wasn't spicy enough (I used store-bought gingersnaps rather than my homemade) and it just tasted bland. The other people said they could definitely taste the cardamom, but I couldn't. The topping was nice (even though it was burned) but didn't go all that well with the rest. In all - no, not a great recipe, and I can't recommend it.

Here's, however, a recipe I heartily recommend. Chocolate Mousse. I think this is my favourite dessert. Simple to make, and an instant hit with everyone who tries it. You can vary it as you want to, using any combination of chocolate. I’ve never tried it with white chocolate though – but I will. I think with less sugar, and maybe a little bit of mint, it’d be a great outcome. Maybe serve with a candycane per portion, too!



It’s rich, but so good that you can’t stop eating. This recipe makes enough for four generous portions. (Obviously depending on greed, I've shared it with two friends and we all wolfed down our mammoth portions.)

Chocolate Mousse
200 g dark chocolate (Fairly cheap chocolate works well here - or you can mix dark and milk, if you want a less intense mousse)
300 ml double cream
3 eggs
3 1/2 Tbsp sugar (50 ml)
1 Tbsp flavoring - you can use your favorite liquor (this works well with whiskey or rum, or Kahlua, Amaretto or Frangelico), coffee, maybe extract (I'd use less of that though) or anything else. Or just leave it out. Mint might be good though!

Melt the chocolate over waterbath (bain-marie?), or carefully in the microwave. Let it cool don a little bit. Beat the eggs with the sugar until you have a very pale yellow fluff. Beat the cream until it holds soft peaks. Add the chocolate and the flavoring to the eggs, stir well to combine. Gently fold in the cream. Spoon into glasses or ramekins - or coffee cups - and let them sit in a cool place for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

Note: Sometimes, the chocolate tends to freeze up if the eggs are too cold - the result is kind of a chocolate chip chocolate mousse. You get tiny granules of chocolate in it. Not a bad thing, really, but different. And, one time when I made this, I got the great idea that since the flavoring and the chocolate goes into the eggs at the same time, I might as well mix the flavoring with the chocolate. Not a good idea, at all. The chocolate seized completely. Don't do that.

Eat like a genius

Yesterday, December 10th, was the night of the Nobel Prize Ceremony. No, I was not invited (this time either). I can't say I'm particularly interested, but it is a very big deal in Sweden. Here's the menu - I'll have to get back to you on actual recipes, they're usually posted in the Swedish newspapers a couple of days after the awards. It doesn't sound very difficult this year. (Although, admittedly, it sounds harder in French than it did in Swedish.)

MENU
Terrine de homard aux tomates rehaussée d´œufs d´ablette (That's a lobster terrine)

Faux filet de veau et son jus au vin rouge, meli-melo de tubercules et gâteau de pommes de terre (veal)

Mousse d´amandes aux mûres arctiques, sorbet au lait d´amandes (almond mousse with blackberries and a sorbet from almond milk)

VINS
Dom Perignon vintage 1995
Magnum

Château Corbin Michotte 1993
Saint-Emilion Grand Cru

Château Raymond-Lafon 1998
Sauternes
Café
Remy Martin VSOP
Cointreau
Eau minérale de Ramlösa

Want to know more about Nobel menus? Go to http://nobelprize.org/nobel/events/menus/index.html and you can check out pretty much all of them.

Sugar High Fridays #3 - Spice Up Your Winter!

When Zarah-Maria announced that she'd be hosting the third edition of Sugar High Fridays, I was thrilled! The theme was very exciting - spices! She offered us three different possibilities - nutmeg, allspice or cardamom. Cardamom is one of my fave flavors, so naturally, that's what I'm going for.

However, I'm cheating. Yeah, that's what it feels like anyway. I'm sharing two recipes with you today, but I can't really tell you how either one tastes. The first one is a strawberry cardamom liquer, that I made towards the end of the summer. It's actually ready to drink now, but I haven't had time for a tasting yet. I think I might save it until the night before christmas.. and savour it.

Strawberry-Cardamom Liquer
1 liter of strawberries (that's about 500 gram), hulled and halved.
200 ml sugar
2 tsp cardamom seeds (not pods, not ground!)
350 ml vodka

Layer the berries, sugar and cardamom into a jar big enough to hold all the ingredients. Mine was actually too small, so I had to add more vodka afterwards. (However, make sure you can get MOST of the vodka in, as if you don't, you might have a yeast problem.) Pour the vodka over everything, and seal the jar tightly. Let sit in the sunlight for six weeks, giving it a gentle shake every now and then. After that, decant into a bottle, and let rest for a couple of months. You can taste it every now and then to make sure it's the way you want it to be. The flavour will deepen as it stands. You can use a little less cardamom if you want to - I'm using quite a lot in this one.

My second offering is a cardamom-cinnamon-walnut cheesecake, that I made today. I can't tell you how it tastes, as I'm bringing it to a christmas gathering tomorrow - but it sure looks good! (I'll tell you how it tasted on Sunday.) I'm basing the cheesecake on Nigella's London Cheesecake recipe, simply because it's a nice, reliable cheesecake recipe. Or at least I hope so - it's gotten good reviews over at Nigella's Kitchen, and I've always had good results with her other recipes. I did try the Chocolate-Lime cheesecake in Nigella Bites a couple of months ago, and so should you. It's great. The topping is from a recipe by Jennifer Flanagan, posted on Nigella's Kitchen- I didn't trust the rest of the recipe though.

Cardamom-Cinnamon-Walnut Cheesecake

Crust:
150 gram gingersnaps
75 gram butter, softened or even melted

Filling:
600 grams cream cheese (that's three packets of Philadelphia original, in my case)
150 gram sugar
3 eggs
3 eggyolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cardamom
3 tsp cinnamon

Topping:
100 gram toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp cardamom (the original recipe called for two tsp of ginger)
25 gram butter, in small pieces

Instructions:
Process the cookies in a food processor until they are crumbs. Add the butter, process briefly again. Press the sandy mixture into a 8 or 9-inch springform pan. Put the pan in the fridge and heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (or 350 F).

Beat the cream cheese gently until it's smooth, then add the sugar. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks, then finally the vanilla and the spices. Put the kettle on. Line the outside of the chilled pan with strong foil - at least twice, this is scary. Put it all in a large roasting pan, and pour in hot water from the kettle. (In the roasting pan, AROUND the cake pan. Just clarifying.) It should come about halfway up. Put it into the oven and cook for 50 minutes. It should be fairly set at this point, but a little wobbly is ok. Don't worry if you got cracks - they will be conveniently covered by the topping anyway. Take it out, and out of the roasting pan. Put on the broiler (grill, as we call it in Sweden - those hot things in the roof of your oven should heat up and become red). (Or, I bet, you could use a little gas burner, like you do for Creme Brulee.)

Prepare the topping by mixing all the ingredients together until you have a coarse sandy rubble. Put this on top of your hot cheesecake, and put it on a rack near the top of your oven. Leave it for a minute or two - NO more. The topping should come blisteringly together, but it shouldn't burn. (As mine did. Of course. Sigh. Hopefully it'll taste fine anyway.)

Hamburgers and cauliflower

Recently, I’ve been employing several recipes found in other blogs. The other night, I had a craving for a homemade burger, topped with the caramelized onion jam that I found several months ago on The Daily Bread and that I’m planning to make as Christmas gifts for a few select friends. Naturally, I tried the recipe for myself, and it’s yummy indeed. It can be used for many things, I’m sure, but atop a big juicy burger with garlic, raw tomatoes and orange plastic cheese, it was darn good. It created the perfect balance between sweet and savoury, and blended beautifully with the juices of the meat and the tomato. It also has a sharp bite because of the balsamic vinegar. Oh, I love it! I followed the recipe, but made it without the wine. In fact, Donna has later posted that the wine is indeed entirely optional. I used water instead, but I think it can be made without extra liquid at all. It looked pretty runny when I put it into jars (jar, to be exact – a big one.) but it seem to have solidified a little bit since then.

With this, I made cauliflower. I found this recipe a few days ago at FoodNerd! And couldn’t wait to try it! Per made fries to go with his burger, but he ended up eating a lot of cauliflower too. Great recipe – and very versatile. I modified it a little – using a lot less oil (about two tablespoons) and a mixture of white vine vinegar, and balsamic vinegar. I only used a splash of each. Then again, I probably had a bit less cauliflower (just one head) and more onion (two small ones) than the original. Anyway, it was delicious, and I look forward to making this again.

Blog Awards!

Second post in one day, but I had to make this one. Kate, of The Accidental Hedonist, has announced the 2004 Blog Awards! How cool is that? There are different categories, and you can send in your nominations here.

Blogger's block

I've had blogger's block. Really. Just the thought about blogging about Thanksgiving has made me feel exhausted. Which is weird, because there's not that much to it, really. Oh well. Here's the short rundown on what happened, what I cooked and what I thought:

-Nigella's Super Juicy Spiced Turkey, from Feast. I bought my frozen turkey, which was about nine pounds, on Thursday. I thawed it until Saturday morning, when I put it into a spicy brine overnight. On Sunday morning (right - I had Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night.) I took it out, dried it off.. gave it a glaze, and into the oven it went. Perfect, except that it got a little bit burned at the top. I'll put it lower from the beginning next time. And yes, there will be a next time.

-Cornbread stuffing with orange and cranberries, also from Feast. Minus the cranberries though. I wasn't superimpressed with this - I much preferred the cornbread in its unadultered form (and that was so fabulous it'll have to be a post of its own) and I'll probably skip it next time. But it was good, and everyone liked it.

-Green bean and lemon casserole, again, from Feast. This was not bad at all - but very basic. Nice to have a veggie dish though. I cut down on the butter in the recipe, and it was just fine.

-Roast potatoes - yum. I always have great success with this, so no big surprise here. I used soft potatoes, parboiled them, shook them around quite a bit, put them in a tray with some oil, lots of salt and.. that's it really. Into the oven, leave them for a long time. Yum.



-Sweet potatoes and marshmallows. From Feast. Won't do this again. Nice, but definitely not spectacular, and the marshmallows expanded. Like, a lot. Like, to fill my oven. Or it felt that way. And what on earth to do with all the leftovers? No, this was too weird.

-Cornbread. Perfect. More on that later.

-Marinated cherry tomatoes. I didn't want a full-on salad, but just a little something. I halved cherry tomatoes, drizzled with a raspberry balsamic vinegar, some salt and a pinch of sugar. Excellent!



-Cream sauce. Ready-made, I didn't have the energy to make it from scratch.

-Cranberry sauce. Made from scratch. No huge hit with the family. Nice, but unnecessary.

And that was it. I finished the meal with a frozen cheesecake, a family favorite but with a holidaý twist.

Frozen Holiday Cheesecake
200 gram cream cheese (I used Philadelphia light)
3 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
200 ml sugar
300 ml heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp lingonberry jam (cranberry sauce should work)
2 Tbsp apple butter (since I happened to have it)

Use a springform pan. Grease it with butter, and line it with gingersnap crumbs that you grind finely in a pestle. This is your crust. Make sure to line the sides of the pan, too.

Cream the cheese, egg yolks and the sugar. Flavor with the vanilla, cinnamon, lingonberries and apple butter. (Or for another flavor - omit all these, and flavor with lemon peel.) Beat the cream until it forms stiff peaks. Carefully blend with the cheese cream. Beat the eggwhites until stiff, and fold those in too. Put in the freezer for at least six hours or overnight. Take out about twenty minutes before you want to eat.

Wine - all about wine

I can't believe I missed Wine Blogging Wednesday. I had prepared so well for it, too. Several weeks ago, I went to Systembolaget, which is the only place in Sweden where you can legally buy alcohol. (Except for restaurants, obviously.) We have a state-monopoly. Whether that is good or bad is debatable - but the service is great.

I found a guy working there, nearly bored to tears stacking boxes of beer, and I told him that I had a challenge for him. His eyes lit up, and you could really tell how excited he was. A challenge? A CHALLENGE??? Bring it on! So, I said that I wanted a riesling, but not from Europe. He sprinted off towards the wine shelves, and started pointing out bottles to me. Words rattled out of him, I couldn't catch half of it, much less remember it now, but he was really very knowledgeable. I finally settled, with his excited approval, on a bottle of Rawson's Retreat, from Penfolds Winery. He gave me about ten menu suggestions, all of which I rapidly forgot.

The perfect moment to enjoy this came up last weekend, when my friend Anna came to visit. We decided to cook a chicken dish from Jamie Oliver's last cookbook - it was a simple thing really, but the recipe didn't work very well. The basics were to put corn in an oven-proofdish, add some squashed up cannellini beans, drizzle with cream and wine, top with chicken breasts stuffed with bananas and bacon strips and cook it in the oven. Well, problem was - chicken wouldn't cook. I finally had to give up, take it out and fry the chicken in a pan, and then put back on the casserole - but it was all worth it. Extremely tasty! I'll do it again, but then I'd probably fry the chicken before starting, so it'd have a bit of color.

The wine went very well with this, and also very well IN it, as it happened. I normally don't like rieslings very much, but coming to think of it, I'd pretty much only tried German ones. And those are generally too sweet. This one wasn't sweet at all - just fresh and fruity. It went especially well on its own, before dinner. That's how I prefer to enjoy my wine, anyway.