delectation

To Napoleon

Cooking day today, and it was a chance to take a break from the Capoeira crowd, and reconnect with other friends (though I am a wee bit sorry that I opted not to go to the Vallejo boys' BBQ...).

Nora came back from Chicago and straight to my house, where I was putting the finishing touches on a Chicken alla Marengo. Note that the recipe calls for no salt until the very end, but I would recommend seasoning all the way through - from browning the chicken in flour sprinkled with salt and pepper, to salting the sauteéd mirepoix of garlic, onions, and shallots. A suggestion a reader contributes is to brine the chicken prior to cooking; I might try this the next time. I also threw in some thyme sprigs while the chicken was stewing, and at the last moment added some fresh basil chiffonade as I was serving the dish. I also might try a variation of this recipe another time.

Chicken Marengo is a Piedmontese dish, and has quite a colourful history, found here:

It was at Marengo, situated south of Turin, in the Italian province of Piedmont, that Napoleon defeated the Austrians in June 1800, in a battle which he regarded as the most brilliant of this career.

[...]

Napoleon, as was his habit, had not eaten before the battle; and was certain to be famished. When he called for a meal he demanded immediate service (and bolted it down in a few minutes when he got it). Dunand [his chef] was desperate. Foragers were sent out and turned up only meager booty - a scrawny chicken, four tomatoes, three eggs, a few crayfish, a little garlic - and a frying pan - for Dunand was without his cooking utensils. They has been unable to find butter, but had managed some olive oil.

Dunand cut up the chicken with a sabre and fried it in oil, crushed garlic, and water made more palatable with a little cognac filched from Napoleon's own canteen; together with some emergency-ration bread supplied by one of the soldiers, with eggs, fried in the same liquid on the side, and the crayfish, also fried, on top. A measure of Dunand's desperation was the unholy combination of chicken and crayfish; he must really have left that all the food he could scrape together was none too much.

Napoleon found the dish excellent and ordered that it be served after every battle.

[...]

Chicken Marengo today is chicken cut into pieces, browned in oil, and then cooked slowly (not as Dunand did it) with peeled tomatoes, crushed garlic, parsley, white wine and cognac, seasoned with crushed pepper and served with fried eggs on the side (with or without crayfish, also on the side) and sometimes croutons, doubling as Dunand's army bread.

No crayfish or croutons, or fried eggs even, but it's an easy enough dish, suitable in the event you need something quick, fast, and open for variation - like just after a battle, for instance, or when friends drop by for an impromptu visit.

Brian came over as I poured some orzo into a pot, to serve as the accompaniment, and opened up a bottle of Rosenblum Vintner's Cuvee Zinfandel XXV, my new favourite everyday wine. I ladled the chicken onto the pasta hot out of the pot (just touched up with a little butter and salt), Nora & B. laughing all the while as we caught up with each other. Bert joined us soon afterwards, and we cut into the fresh fruit tart Nora bought from the little patisserie down the street, and drank sparkling lime-flavoured water, and all was good with the world. We read each others' tarot cards and got into a discussion about reincarnation and the supernatural - telling ghost stories is always fun - and it was a nice, mellow holiday afternoon that slowly but speedily whiled into evening, and the next thing I knew it was already 9pm and time for goodbyes ... Posted by claudine at May 31, 2004 09:40 PM