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Grilled Chicken Salad with Balsamic Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

I challenged myself to cook what was on hand this week, instead of running out to the store every afternoon to pick up a few items. So last night I concocted a salad with a few things I had on hand. It was delicious, and the real surprise was that it was a great match with the 2008 Big Fire Pinot Noir – now that’s not something you can say about very many salads. The balsamic vinegar you choose will make a big difference in how well this goes with wine. You don’t need to get out that precious balsamic that someone brought you as a hostess gift – save that to drizzle on a perfectly ripe fresh tomato – but you do want to make sure the vinegar you choose is pretty mellow, so as not to conflict with the wine. I actually used a grocery store brand called Colavita in this recipe.

3 or 4 servings

4 or 5 chicken thighs, I used bone in, skin on

2 T Balsamic Vinegar

6 T Olive Oil

4 oz. mild blue cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Romaine lettuce

Preheat a grill, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Grill the thighs till they are done to your liking (about 20 minutes, depending on how hot your grill is).

Make the vinaigrette. Combine the balsamic vinegar and the olive oil in a bowl, add salt and pepper. Crumble up the cheese and using the back of a fork, mash it into the vinaigrette. I just did this enough to get the cheese somewhat incorporated into the vinaigrette, but I didn’t try to get all the lumps out.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin and cut the meat off the bone into whatever size pieces you like.

Tear the romaine into bite sized pieces and toss with some of the vinaigrette. Lay the chicken on top of the lettuce and pour the remaining vinaigrette over all.

Not the most beautiful salad in the world, but definitely yummy and so simple for a warm Thursday evening.

Fleur de Sel Chocolate Cookies

Adapted from a recipe I found at the website Culinate. These are the best cookies, everybody (well, grown ups anyway) love these. They are not too sweet and therefore don’t conflict with any wine you might have leftover at the end of dinner.

Yield

2 to 3 doz.

Ingredients

	1¼	cups all-purpose flour
	⅓	cup unsweetened cocoa powder
	½	tsp. baking soda
	1	stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
	⅔	cup (packed) light brown sugar
	¼	cup sugar
	½	tsp. coarse fleur de sel (no, you CANNOT substitute) plus more to sprinkle on top
	1	tsp. pure vanilla extract
	5	oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous ¾ cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Steps

1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.
2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
3. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.
4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1½ inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)
5. Getting Ready to Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
6. Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are ½ inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them. Add a sprinkle of fleur de sel (1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon) to the top of each cookie. Press down on the salt a bit so the salt doesn’t fall off.
7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Fig Mostarda

5 lbs. dried figs, stemmed, and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
875 grams light brown sugar
875 grams granulated sugar
310 ml balsamic vinegar
1 cup Autograph Pinot Noir
70 grams freshly grated ginger (not on micro plane, chopped)
1.5 T toasted fennel seeds
1.5 T yellow mustard seeds
18 cardamom pods, seeds extracted
4 T chopped lemon zest
9 juice of nine lemons
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp. pimento
Place figs, sugars, balsamic, and wine in heavy saucepan and simmer for a half hour – let cool. Puree half of the figs, add this back, and add rest of ingredients. Let simmer for another 1/2 hour.

Parmesan Black Pepper Biscotti

Yield 5 to 6 Dozen

1.5 T whole black peppercorns
4 C all purpose flour
2 T baking powder
2 t salt
2.25 C finely grated parmesan cheese (4.5 ounces)
– putting 1/4 C aside
1.5 sticks cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch cubes
4 large eggs (3 for biscotti, 1 for glazing)
1 C whole milk

Preheat oven to 350. Pulse peppercorns in grinder until coarsely ground. Put aside 1/2 T aside to sprinkle on biscotti logs for baking. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, 2 C cheese and 1 T pepper into kitchen aid bowl. Using the paddle, add the chilled butter, and mix until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk 3 eggs with milk and add. Mix only until dough comes together. Divide dough, and roll into 15 inch logs on a lightly floured surface. Place 4 logs on parchment lined baking sheet. Whisk remaining egg and brush some over logs, sprinkle the logs with the remaining 1/4 C cheese and 1/2 T pepper. Bake, rotating cookies for about 30 minutes until golden and firm. Cool about 10 minutes and cut diagonally into 1/2 inch slice. Reduce oven to 300. Bake the slices, turning over once, until golden and crisp. 25 to 30 more minutes.

Dill Scones

5 1/3 C all purpose flour
2 T baking powder
1 t salt
12 T well chilled unsalted butter
4 T finely chopped dill
1 t ground pepper
4 eggs beaten kept cold
1 C heavy cream chilled, more if needed

Preheat Oven to 425 degrees.
Cut butter into small pieces and place in freezer, until very well chilled. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and pepper together. Place in bowl of food processor with butter and pulse only until butter is still visible as small pieces. Place mixture into large bowl. Add chopped dill, stir well, add eggs and cream. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and fold over on itself twice, rolling lightly in between. Gently roll into rectangle of 3/4 inch thickness, and cut unto 1.5 inch squares. Bake until firm and golden 8 to 10 minutes. Place on wire rack. Cover the scones with a cloth while they cool on the rack. This will keep some of the steam in, making the scones soft, moist and light.

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