This months cooking club recipe at the Food for Thought blog at foodtv.ca is “Chicken Paillard with Fresh Fig Salad“. I am glad that this recipe was chosen as I had never had figs before. I had a bit of trouble finding the figs though. None of the major grocery stores that I tried had any figs. I was able to find them at the St. Lawrence market. The figs that I got did not seem to be the ripest. They were a pale pink rather than the dark pink that I have seen in some photos. They were still pretty good though.
I made a few modifications to the recipe. The first thing that I did was cut it down to a single portion. I forgot to pick up the arugula and ended up just using the salad greens that I had in my fridge. I used gorgonzola cheese as it is one of my favorite cheeses. The salad was really good! The sweetness of the figs contrasted well with the saltiness of the pancetta and the creamy goodness of the cheese.
I am really glad that I got to try figs and I will be using them in a few more recipes while they are in season.
Palliard is a method of preparing meat in which the meat is flattened. The thiner meat cooks quickly and evenly. I liked using this method as it is always annoying when cooking a chicken breast and the thinner parts are done but the thicker parts are still pink in the middle.
Similar Recipes:
Chicken and Asparagus Salad with Creamy Tarragon Dressing
If they tasted sweet, your figs were ripe. You just got green figs, rather than black figs – they do come in a (small) range of colours.
Looks very good. I love figs, too bad they aren’t local.
I adore figs, but I have actually never used fresh before, only dried. This salad looks awesome, so maybe I’ll try to hunt down some fresh figs too…
And I STILL haven’t had a fresh fig this season! grrrrrr! haha
You can get figs from Califoprnia here this time of year. I know Whole foods caries them (although you may need to mortgage your house! *smile*) For the pasy few weeks they have been in all of the grocery stores here in Burlington.
oh wow – this looks delish. guess what i have in the refrig???
figs!
will make this tomorrow for supper.
i think your portions are a little excessive but your concept of cookery is amazing..if I was gordon Ramsay, you would be in my kitchen!!