04 April 2010

My Week & Chicken Bouillabaisse

Hi all!  Well this week has been a pretty tough one.  I severely hurt my back and have been under house arrest by my body for the past week.  Paul had to stay home also with me.  For the first couple of days I couldn't get up, walk and other things without him.  Luckily he helped me find an awesome chiropractor and now I've come down from a 10 on the pain scale to a 4 on the pain scale.  I still can't sit for more than a couple of minutes, but I'm on my way to recovery!

I do thank Paul for all his help.  Seriously, he is an amazing, caring and patient husband.  Thanks for staying home with me to help me through everything!  I love you!

Anyways as you can imagine I've had lots of time to stand and read while Paul worked from home.  What do I like to read?  Cookbooks!  I found a recipe for chicken bouillabaisse and today I was well enough to try it out.  Paul got the shopping done for me yesterday.  The shopping included Saffron!  I have never used saffron, it's so expensive and I just never had recipes which called for it...however $16 and 1 oz later....tah dah!


So it started with cutting up a nice little whole chicken.  It had been so long since I've done it.  It took me 5 whole minutes!  Salt, pepper and fresh rosemary.


On to browning!



Next I needed to add my whole garlic, saffron, salt and pepper and a little more rosemary.


De-glaze with chicken stock (recipe called for a dry white wine and pernot - however I don't cook with alcohol - so yep).  Then add a can of tomato puree.  Couldn't find tomato puree, so we went with crushed tomatoes in tomato puree :) Simmered for 45 minutes on the stove top.  Pureed everything in a blender, poured back into pan then added the chicken and a few Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced.



Brought everything to a boil, covered and stuck it in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.  The recipe said 45 minutes at 300 degrees, but I'm guessing they had a convection oven - because I did mine for that long, then hiked up the oven to 375 degrees for another 45 minutes and the 1/4 inch sliced potatoes were finally cooked al dente.


Anyways I served it with rice and it was yum!


I'm going back to  work tomorrow...wish me luck and let's hope that I can sit down for more than 3 minutes at a time!  Love to all!

3 comments:

Chantel Leialoha Seguritan said...

So sorry to hear about all the pain and suffering you were in last week. Hope your day was okay! Your food looks delicious! Thanks again for that awesome presentation. The sisters will definitely enjoy it.

Angela said...

Hey, I would have been willing to do some house work for you...still am. Dinner? Anything? Hope you are feeling better!

Betsy said...

I hope you feel better soon Caroline! I love you!