A rambling change of plan
"The cream of enjoyment in this life is always impromptu. The chance walk; the unexpected visit; the unpremeditated journey; the unsought conversation or acquaintance." Fanny Fern
Today I was facing the eternal problem - the dual one of what to cook for dinner, and what to do with a problem ingredient or, indeed, ingredients. Nothing new there. The starting point was romanesco, the end point after an enjoyable ramble around the net which encompassed life, the universe and everything - well a lot of quite unassociated things anyway - was a trip to the shops, a different dinner tonight and an almost unexpected lunch to look forward to tomorrow, as well as glimpses into other people's minds and a whole world that goes on without either my understanding or involvement. Some of it entertaining, some of it ho hum and some of it rather sad.
The main initial problem is one I am still dealing with - the romanesco - hence the painting of the fridge above, which is a really good impression of what my fridge looks like all the time. It's the starting point of today's journey. 'Journey' - such a corny word these days is it not? I wince a bit every time I use it in not quite its literal sense of going somewhere. My not quite literal sense of going somewhere today is hopefully arriving at the destination of dinner, with an entertaining 'journey' along the way.
So far on the romanesco front I have made - first - a not very good pasta. Reflecting on that I think the sausage meat was a bad idea. It would have been better to stay vegetarian and either go creamy/cheesy or tomatoey basing it all on the orecchiete and broccoli dish that shows up in most Italian cookbooks these days. Second - I threw some into a leftover fry up - I won't call it a stir-fry - because I cringe about this kind of dish really - the one where you gather together all those things in plastic containers and almost past it veggies throw them in a hot fat in a wok and fry high with flavourings of this and that - maybe some soy sauce to make you feel that it's almost a stir fry. But I apologise to all Asians. I do know it really isn't a stir fry.
So today I thought I might try some kind of sauté dish that would involve chicken and some kind of sauce. Thus began my internet ramble - and I did indeed find quite a few recipes.
The first came from the Grana Padano website and featured this classy looking dish of Chicken roll with romanesco broccoli, curry sauce and Grana Padano from a chef called Carmine Amarante. Honestly this was so simple. Indeed so simple I wondered whether it would be one of those things that was either divine or plain boring. You just rolled the chicken in foil and baked it. Scald the cut broccoli pieces. Make the sauce by whisking over heat, milk, grana padano cheese and curry powder - put this on base and place the rest on top. And you have to ask what the spotty bits on the chicken are. There's no mention of anything else - paprika? My thoughts were that this was a prime example of making something look good that is just boring. I wasn't prepared to take the risk and besides it wasn't going to use much of that romanesco.
I added cream to my Google search and came up with this on the Cook and Kitchen Facebook page, with a recipe from a guy called Eugene Antoine Lebreton for Pan-seared chicken with romanesco and creamy tarragon sauce. Well it wasn't really a recipe as such - a recipe outline perhaps, but enough to give it a go -
"Pre marinaded with salt, pepper and little vinegar, coated with cornmeal, and panfried. Finished in a creamy sauce of tarragon, shallots, mustard, chicken and veggie stock and creme fraiche. Served with butter- blanched romanesco florets, and garnished with orange zest"
However, it's not the season for tarragon. There is none in the shops, and like the first recipe the romanesco was really only a small accompaniment. I wanted the romanesco to be a major ingredient. But we are beginning to get some constant ingredients with the mustard and vinegar.
Still on Facebook I found an enthusiastic and pretty Asian guy who calls himself Just a Humble Cook, making Pan roasted chicken, romanesco, leeks, mustard sauce, crispy potatoes. He wore a mask - in 2025 - so long past Covid, so how do I know that he was indeed a he and that he was pretty. Well he briefly, in the middle of the thing, put up a photograph of himself without the mask, and besides the voice was very masculine. So many little questions about him - why the mask, why add in a photograph? A hangover from Covid? A bit of vanity?
But what about the dish? Another aside here - the video is a mere 1 minute 26 seconds. There are no quantities, temperature or timings, it's an almost recipe again which gives you the freedom I suppose to improvise. The briefness of the video also, of course, gives you the impression that it will only take you a minute or so to make. I actually rather love these little videos that you find on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for their sheer joie de vivre. And their youth. There was another one, which I discarded as useful, but it took just 20 seconds start to finish. And yet you have an idea. Maybe the Recipe as a literary form is dying. Maybe it's the era of the vague idea so that you can take it from there. As to this particular recipe - again it was a collection of parts, rather than one combined dish. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing. And Pan roasting? You don't roast in a pan on a stove do you? What's wrong with pan-fried - and it was the potatoes that were roasted not the chicken.
Then came the salads - two from Hello Fresh - and they didn't look bad, which - and here I confess to a bit of food snobbery and suspicion - sort of surprised me. But it's winter, and besides I'm not a salad girl. However, they are probably worth mentioning: Kashmiri-style chicken and romanesco warm salad and Chicken and super green romanesco Caesar-style salad - both of them the kind of thing you would find in a supermarket magazine, easy to make, and not for me - not just because of the salad thing, but also because - yet again the chicken was an entirely separate thing. And I'll add in here another salad - which doesn't even have any chicken - but it's Nigel - Brassica salad with crisp pickled-onions and goat's curd - and I now see that I have allowed my admiration of Nigel Slater to let me feature a dish that has no chicken at all, just romanesco, cauliflower and broccoli - and I don't have the other two. Oh dear. How our prejudices influence us.
Somewhere around here I came across a Substack post by Jessica McCannon Micheli of La Tavole Rurale/The Rural Table theoretically writing about Citrus Roast Chicken + Saffron Romanesco Broccoli but actually penning a heartfelt cry about the state of the world with statements such as these:
I join others in the belief that so many of the major problems that we face in modern society are a result of our “disconnection” from ourselves, our communities and the land. Many of these blinding issues would surely disappear in coming together in family and/or community to sit down at least once a day around a table full of good nutrient-dense food cooked with love."
or "It’s time to put down our arms and pick up our forks. When we support good food and sovereign food systems in the best way that we can, we regain power and control over our basic human rights and we take it from the governments who are not acting in our names to defend the sanctity of world peace. Good food and sovereign food systems help us to choose."
There was no recipe, and anyway the romanesco - my problem - was just a side dish of some leftover dish. It was a long piece filled with despair about the injustices of the world - Gaza was cited for example. Marginally over the top perhaps, but said with feeling and demonstrating yet again that food is more than dinner on the table.
So I resumed my search and found one more recipe which also didn't meet my requirements although perhaps it came the closest to my perceived needs: Chicken Curry with Romanesco Broccoli & Shiitake Mushrooms - What's Cooking? Looking at the picture I'm tempted to say where's the chicken or indeed the mushrooms, but they are tucked underneath I think. Lots of romanesco however - maybe too much.
At this point I gave up and decided to do my own thing. Perhaps a kind of sautéed chicken finished with a creamy sauce that included possibly roasted or maybe just fried with the chicken, romanesco. Maybe a bit of sauerkraut as well, some mustard, cornichons ...?
But then came my change of plan because after a breief texting conversation we now have a short notice lunch guest tomorrow. A bit of the 'cream of enjoyment in life'. What to cook for lunch that won't take too long? My first instinct was some kind of quiche - my fallback response to emergencies. But we had quiche a couple of days ago so maybe I should do something with the chicken tomorrow rather than today. And Nigel's Chicken with marsala and crème fraïche which I have made many times now and which I know is ridiculously quick and easy to make sprang to mind as the obvious solution. Which involved an unplanned trip to the shops to get some crème fraïche and some cornichons. A trip that included a brief encounter with an incredibly engaging and positive cash register chick - or guy - I wasn't entirely sure. Over the top really but so refreshing. So mood enhancing.
"When the facts change, I change my mind." John Maynard Keynes
And having written the above I find I am about to change my mind again. For the chicken marsala is where I got my idea for the cornichons from. A step back first. Chicken tomorrow, so I'm changing to sausages today. Maybe a tomato sauce for this - a braise with the sausages and perhaps with more onions and capsicum. A bit of spice? Difficult to get spice without the chilli that my husband so dislikes. Smoky paprika perhaps with some dried basil which is defintely not basil really but does have a kind of spicy taste. We'll see ...
"There is always time for another last minute" Terry Pratchett
YEARS GONE BY
August 30
2025 - Nothing
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Pictures of paradise
2017 - Seville oranges
2016 - Terry Pratchett had a quote for everything - coincidence - my last quote for today was one of his - and so very apt as well - or not
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