Chicken in Sherry Sauce

In 1969, my mom, dad and I left Cuba for Spain and eventually the United States. At the time, my mom and dad thought they would never return to their beloved homeland. They believed they would never see their parents, siblings, or friends again. It must have been terrifying, especially for those Cubans who had never been anywhere outside the island of Cuba. My parents were like that. My mom and dad had never left their country, had never even been to Miami, only 90 miles away. I can only imagine the fear, the uncertainty and the desperation they felt when they boarded that plane in January 1969 bound for Madrid, Spain.
For many fleeing Cubans, Spain was just a pit stop on their way to the golden streets of the USA. We lived in Madrid for 2 years awaiting our US entry visa. During those 2 years, my mom and dad struggled to maintain a roof over our heads and I'm sure to maintain their own sanity. I don't remember Madrid. I have flashes of images but no cohesive memory. But my mom loves to tell me stories about our time in Spain, especially, my time at the Tapas bar located on the street level of the apartment building where we lived. Here is a picture of me sitting on my mom's lap at the bar. (European culture does not consider it a crime for a child to enter a bar or to take a sip of wine or beer.) My mom loves to tell me stories of how I would go downstairs, sit at the bar and order Tapas and beer. In reality, it was more like a plate of olives, crackers, cheese and a shot class full of the mildest beer available. She said there was never any fear that I would be kidnapped by some deranged psychopathic child molester. It was a different time and a different place from today's world.
Anyway, getting to the point of my blog, which is food, I made this recipe today from an old Tapas recipe book. The original recipe calls for chicken livers and much less Sherry. But there is no way I'm making chicken livers so I substituted it with chicken breasts. It works wonderfully. Here is my homage to Spain...OLÉ!

Ingredients:
3-4 boneless chicken breasts, washed and cut into 3 inch pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion sliced into long pieces
3 garlic cloves crushed
1/2 cup Spanish Sherry
salt and pepper for taste
handful of green olives
handful of chopped parsley

In a large sauce pan eat the olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and cook until very soft.

Add the chicken, salt and pepper and cook until brown on all sides and well cooked.

Removed chicken from pan and place in a warm plate.

Add the sherry to the pan and deglaze using a wooden spoon to scrap the bottom of the pan. Add the olives and cook for 2 minutes. Add the chicken pieces to the pan again and stir together.

Serve the chicken over yellow rice. Toss the chopped parsley over the chicken and rice. Serve.

Easy to make and delicious!

HEALTHY/LITE VERSION:
This dish is really not fattening. Replace the yellow rice with brown rice or just serve with a salad.

Chicken Piccata

Today, I'm in an Italian mood. This is one of my time tested recipes that never fail. You can be assured that you can serve this dish at a dinner party or just on any old night. I first had this dish in Italy (of course) but with veal. I like it best with chicken. (If you are wondering, the picture is of Sorrento, Italy.)

Ingredients:
3/4 extra virgin olive oil
4 boneless chicken breasts (each breast cut in 2 pieces for a total of 8)
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 Chicken stock (or broth)
Juice of one lemon
Salt and Pepper
1-2 tablespoons of capers (drained of liquid)

Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, dredge the chicken pieces in the flour covering them completely. Place each piece in the oil and brown on all sides. When they are done, set them aside on a warm plate.

Drain the oil from the pan. Return the pan to the stove over medium heat and add the butter. Once the butter is melted, return the chicken and it's juices to the pan. Raise the heat and pour in the wine. Bring to a boil and then add the chicken stock or broth and lemon juice. Stir together.

When the chicken is cooked through, remove them from the pan and place on a serving platter. Add the capers (1 or 2 tablespoons, that's up to you. Remember, capers are salty so think before you add too many). Add the pepper and salt if you feel you need to. Cook for about 3 minutes over medium heat.

Pour the liquid over the chicken pieces and you are ready to serve.

I like to serve this dish with a fine spaghetti. You can serve it just with steamed vegetables or rice. Choice is yours.


HEALTHY/LITE VERSION:
Don't add the butter. Just use a little more olive oil. Avoid the flour and just brown the chicken in the olive oil. Sauce, however, will be thinner than the version with the flour. Serve with brown rice or whole wheat pasta.

La Cerveza Cubana (Cuban Beer)

Cubans love a good beer. They love "una buena cerveza fría" (a good cold beer). Most of my childhood memories of Sunday dinners or backyard BBQs involve women in the kitchen cooking, gossiping and men sitting at a table playing dominoes ingesting "chicharrones" (fried pork grinds) and beer until dinnertime. I love those memories. Growing up in the US I saw my dad and uncles drinking Heineken or Budweiser. I never knew that Cuba also had their own beer and that it was actually good. It wasn't until my teens when my mom brought home Hatuey beer that I was introduced to "la cerveza Cubana." In fact, there are about 2 fairly well known Cuban beers. Here they are:



HATUEY BEER pronounced "ah-tway", was launched by the Santiago Brewing Company (part of the BACARDI Company) in Cuba in 1927. The beer was named after a Dominican Indian chief known as "El Cacique de Guajabá", who headed a local resistance to Diego Velazquez in Cuba's Oriente Province in the early sixteenth century and had ultimately been burned at the stake in Baracoa, Cuba in 1514. Throughout Cuban history, his name has been synonymous with the struggle for Cuban independence from the Spanish. Hatuey beeer is perhaps the best known of the
Cuban beers. By 1959 Hatuey controlled 50% of Cuba's beer market. It was so popular that in 1956 Earnest Hemingway featured the beer in his book For Whom the Bells Toll. But after Castro's regime confiscated BARCARDI's assets in 1960, the popularity and quality of Hatuay beer began to fade. Today, you can find the Hatuay beer in Spanish markets across the US. If you want to read more about the history of the Hatuay beer go to their website www.hatuey.com


CERVEZA TROPICAL was born in the late 1880's in Cuba by the Blanco Herrera family in a small brewery. In time, La Tropical as it was known, became Cuban's largest brewer, producing 58% of the island's beer production with brands such as La Tropical, Cristal,Tropical 50 and Maltina. But everything came to an end when in 1960, Castro's Communist regime confiscated and nationalized La Tropical. For more than 38 years La Tropical disappeared from the world's beer market. But in 1998, a Cuban-American named Manuel J. Portuondo and Ramón Blanco Herrera (grandson of La Tropical's founder) reintroduced it to the world market. Learn more about La Tropical at www.cervezatropical.com

I'm sure there are other Cuban beers that I've missed. But these are the two that stand out in my mind and my memory. Next time you have a party try some Cuban beer instead of the ones you are used to. Throw on some Beny More or Buena Vista Social Club and have "una cerveza Cubana."