Beyond Innocence Bourbon-Sage Chicken Pot Pies

OMG A BEYOND BOOK WITH FOOD IN IT.

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system right up front. I'll explain in a bit.

The Beyond series is a long-running Kit Rocha series and these aren't standalone books so forgive me if you haven't read any of them. You'll just have to go back to the beginning and read at least all the main novels, but that shouldn't be a hardship as I think these books are terrific and the first one is usually free at most ebook retailers. The series premise is a dystopian near future where a central capital city called Eden rules over the outlying Sectors, leaving scraps and desperation to the remainder of the area's population. We join the O'Kane gang, which distills and runs whiskey to Eden and the other Sectors, and their leader, Dallas O'Kane, in exploits both political and, frankly, sexual. These books are smoking hot, kinky, extra dirty and full of angst so, well, you've been warned.

I've had some criticisms of this series in the past. Not major ones, but all the myriad characters having similar kinks had started to feel a little repetitive and unlikely five full-length books and almost as many novellas in. But with the most recent one, Beyond Innocence, two O'Kane outsiders get caught up in the larger political landscape Dallas has been forced by circumstance to take an interest in, bringing Jared, a high class male prostitute, and Lili, the widow of the brutal, late leader of another Sector into each other's orbits. Both are needing a change and healing and trying to figure out their place in the O'Kane hierarchy. It's a romance with a lighter touch than previous books and the kink is strictly limited to a surprisingly romantic fivesome, making Beyond Innocence one of the series stand-outs for me thus far.

While Jared has about as much sexual experience as any human being ever, he has been playing the part of the debonair faux-suitor to Eden's female elite for so long that he doesn't know who he is any more. When his best fried Ace is injured during a fight, he decides the time for sitting on the sidelines has past and starts using his connections to help Dallas. Lili has been a trophy wife her entire life, spending her time drugged on her late husband's product. While she has physically escaped Sector Five, the freedom and pleasure to be found in Sector Four is completely outside her experience, to the point where she can't believe it's not just all an elaborate charade. The way these two find themselves and find each other via food and music and other very normal human pursuits is a departure, but a welcome one.

It's totally possible to read these books as dirty, kinky, violent dystopian romance, focusing in on the O'Kane orgies and brutality. But that's not all they are. Beyond Innocence does a great job of thematically leading us into Book 7, which will be the last one of the series [EDITED TO NOTE: okay, so not the last one, just the last one that's currently up as "coming soon"]. The thing I have appreciated most about this series is the thorough exploration of femininity and masculinity, gently poking at the assumptions we make about the nature and scope of what we consider powerful. For example, Jared is perfectly capable of violence, but that's not where his true power lies--he specializes in information. And Lili has no capacity for violence at all, yet winds up solving a problem that the others can't, using her "trophy wife" knowledge and contacts to save the day. And throughout the book, her value to the O'Kane gang is that of someone who can actually cook, a traditionally under-appreciated "feminine" trait and task.

The role of women in these books has significantly evolved since the first one. And Rocha seems to be leading us full-circle since one of the heroes in the seventh book is a doctor--a healer rather than a killer. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts about this at the series conclusion, but for now, for fans of the series, Beyond Innocence is a fabulous addition.

So Bree Bridges, one half of the "Kit Rocha" duo and I have joked a bit back and forth about the fact that their characters never eat. There are like two instances of actual food being consumed prior to Beyond Innocence and one of them is a burnt grilled cheese sandwich. So when I found out that Lili likes to cook, I was like this:

In the book, Jared gives Lili a piano, prompting her to make him cookies, then invite him to dinner. So one of the first meals she makes in the book is chicken pot pies, which sounded terrific to me. And for some reason, I woke up at four in the morning shortly after reading the book and the first thing that popped into my head on waking was these bourbon-sage chicken pot pies. Probably because of the while whiskey-running thing the O'Kanes have going on.

These basically worked out great the first time. I kept tasting the filling though and thinking, "Well, maybe just a little more bourbon." Because what couldn't use just a little more bourbon? I mean, right?

I've written the recipe below as if you'll be starting with raw chicken. But if you have leftover cooked chicken on hand or want to grab a rotisserie bird to speed up the process, you can totally do that. You could also use refrigerated or frozen pie crusts, but I also have a recipe here (with more bourbon in it, natch) to make them from scratch. So it's your choice really. But if you go the pre-prepared route, you'll need two crusts and you're still going to have to roll the out and cut them to fit your pot pie pans.

Though in case there is any doubt in your mind, these are totally freaking fantastic as written and well worth the (sorry, somewhat considerable) effort. So, so worth it.

Bourbon-Sage Chicken Pot Pies
Makes: Four 5" pot pies
Time: 3 hours
Difficulty: Intermediate

Crust
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup bourbon, cold
1/4 cup ice cold water

Filling
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup flour
2 tablespoons bourbon
salt & pepper to taste (I used 2 teaspoons salt & 1/2 teaspoon pepper, but I use unsalted homemade chicken stock so you may need more salt)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 small russet potato, peeled and chopped
3 sprigs sage, minced fine

1. For the crust, process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until crumbs start to collect into clumps, about 15 seconds (there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

2. Sprinkle bourbon and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.

3. Divide dough into two balls, one slightly bigger than the other and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.


4. For filling, poach the chicken breasts. Put the chicken breasts in a medium saucepan and cover almost to the top with water. Heat to a boil, then partially cover and turn down the heat until simmering. Cook for 12 minutes or until chicken juices run clear when pricked with a fork. Darin and and set chicken aside until cool enough to handle.


5. In the same pan (no need to clean), melt 3 tablespoons unsalted butter over medium heat. Add 1/3 cup flour a bit at a time, whisking constantly. Allow to cook, still whisking, for about 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Whisk in chicken stock, making sure no lumps form. Whisk in milk. Return to heat and allow to cook until bubbles start to form and slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and whisk in bourbon. Chop up chicken and return to pan with sauce.



5. In a medium frying pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add carrots, parsnip, potato and onion. Cook over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes, until onion is softened. Add sage and cook an additional 30 seconds. Add vegetables to chicken mixture.

6. Preheat the over to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.


7. Remove the crust from the refrigerator and, starting with the slightly larger ball, roll out on a floured surface, about 20" by 20". Turn one of your pot pie pans face down on the dough. Cutting about 3/4" of an inch away from the edge of your pot pie pans (I just eyeballed this). Repeat three more times and set aside with wax paper in between each circle.


8. On a refloured surface, roll out the remaining dough and cut exactly around the edge of a pot pie pan, about 16" by 16". Repeat three more times.

9. Press larger dough circles into pans, letting excess overhang the edge. Fill each pan with 10-12 ounces of the filling (this will somewhat depend on how large your chicken breasts and vegetables were and how much your sauce reduced while cooking--just try to make it pretty even). Top with smaller dough circles and crimp the edges together, rolling the excess in toward the center of the pan to create a good seal. Prick the top of each pie with a fork to let steam escape and place on a cookie sheet.

10. Bake pot pies for 40-45 minutes until crusts are golden brown. (FYI, I took these out of their pans for photos, but I don't recommend that. They kinda...collapsed. Just leave them in the pan for serving.)

Crock Pot Balsamic Chicken with Spicy Bourbon Bacon Honey Glaze

Today's post has nothing to do with romance. And that picture has nothing to do with this recipe. But this post is all food all the time. I tried out a new recipe from a favorite food blog a couple weeks ago and was quite pleased with the final product, but not with the amount of time it took (marinating overnight, grilling, making a glaze). Plus I, um, don't have a grill. But I love to make stuff in the crock pot when we have our friends over for game night. It keeps me sitting at the table instead of cooking in the kitchen. So I decided to translate this into a crock pot recipe.

Once I'd rejiggered the recipe, several of my Twitter buddies requested it. Of course, those same Twitter buddies are probably gonna hate it because the standout of this dish is really the spicy bourbon bacon honey glaze that I decided to go ahead and keep from the original recipe. Which means that this isn't a full-on crock pot recipe. That said, the crock pot part is so extremely simple and you're going to have to make rice or quinoa or something to eat with it anyway so this hardly even counts as an extra step. (I hope.)

Oh, and sorry for the lack of pretty food pictures, but I never really intended this to be a blog post. It was just...dinner. I do just cook sometimes without taking photos of it.

Rarely.

Crock Pot Balsamic Chicken with Spicy Bourbon Bacon Honey Glaze
adapted from The Food Charlatan
Makes: 4-6 servings
Time: 6 hours, Hands on time: 30 minutes

8 bone-in chicken thighs or 4-6 boneless chicken breasts

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons Barbeque seasoning (I used McCormick's the 1st time & a local one the 2nd time--just pick something with brown sugar in it--not sauce--the dry stuff in the spice aisle)
2 cups chicken stock

8 slices bacon, chopped
3 tablespoons bourbon
1 cup honey
4 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons hot sauce

1. Combine first four ingredients in a large crockpot. Cook on high for 6 hours.

2. Half an hour before chicken is done, brown the bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Pour out bacon fat and reserve for another use. Deglaze the pan with the bourbon. It will steam so keep fingers and faces out of the way. Add honey, worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce to the bacon and whisk to combine. Simmer on medium-low for approximately 5 minutes or until sauce is reduced by half. Set aside until chicken is finished. Sauce will thicken as it cools.

3. Serve chicken over rice or other grain and top with sauce.

Have Mercy Chicken Waffle Sandwiches

It's books like Have Mercy that make me sad more people don't read erotic romance. Shelley Ann Clark may be a first-time author, but this book doesn't read like a first effort. It's super hot, it's tightly written and Clark conveys truth about humanity and feminism that will stick with me for a long time to come.

Emme is a star on the rise. She reminds me a little of Vanessa Carlton, Adele or Lana Del Rey. She has a sexy, sultry, bluesy sound that seems perfect for this moment in music. On stage, she's magnetic. But she is not the same person off stage as she is on stage. Early in her career, she was a back-up singer for a popular band that subsequently broke up. And as legend had it, it was her fault. She has so much potential and the will to grasp it, but fear of how others will see her if she really takes the reins of her career and her desires paralyzes her.

Tom has barely had a life at all. His entire existence has been spent caring for others, particularly his alcoholic sister. He has always had to be the strong one, the responsible one. He inherited his father's bar and his father's house when it was never his ambition to obtain either. His true love is music and he's a phenomenal bass player. So when Emme approaches him to tour with her up-and-coming band, he desperately wants to say yes, but doesn't feel he can. Even when he commits, it isn't all the way.

When they go out on tour together, their mutual attraction has them taking tentative steps toward each other pretty early on, but both have issues outside the relationship holding them back. When they eventually do let their sexual relationship develop, the way it plays out may not work for every reader, particularly if the woman taking the lead in a mild BDSM scene is new to them. But there's a reason why this is important, and it's not just to hit readers' kink buttons. (That said, those with that particular kink button will find this story very satisfying indeed.)

At first, Emme allows herself to be painted as a victim, even in her own mind: of her mother's disapproval, of her suspicious neighbors, of her bandmates' paranoia, of the lead singer of the band she "broke up" and of the music industry gatekeepers who can't let her just be an artist. They want to label her a chunky homewrecker who uses her feminine wiles to distract from her lack of talent. It takes almost the entire duration of the book for Emme to realize that this is all, not to put too fine a point on it, bullshit. More importantly, it's bullshit that she can turn back on itself and use to her benefit.

And it's her sexual relationship with Tom, along with his unflagging confidence and pride in her, that teaches her about how to take the power she wields as an artist on stage and as a capable professional offstage and extend that into her interpersonal relationships. It takes a special kind of man to provide that support. For Tom to acknowledge that Emme has a deep well of strength of her own and to accept that and celebrate it and lean on it shows Have Mercy's true colors. It's not just about the femdom sex or the sultry blues club atmospherics. It's about revolutionizing the way we women see ourselves: powerful, talented, and in control of our own lives and destinies.

Touring musicians eat pretty terribly. My brother was the tour manager for a punk band when he was in his 20s and the main thing he wanted when he got off the road was home-cooked food. So it's not that surprising that the only major reference to a meal in Have Mercy takes place at a Waffle House, that bastion of highway-exit breakfast mediocrity.

It still manages to be a pivotal scene. In it, Emme acknowledges that the music industry would rather she be waifish than rock the curvy retro pin-up vibe she has. In this scene she baldly states that her body needs fuel and can't run on champagne, olives and air. And since this takes place immediately before she moves to take Tom for the first time, Emme's insistence on having the body she wants and not the body others would prefer her to have doesn't seem like an accident.

I had a couple failed batches of waffles before I hit upon this one. I found a few common denominators among the successful waffle recipes I tried. First, I had to turn my waffle iron up as hot as it would go before I got a sufficiently crispy waffle. Second, when I tried to cut back on the butter (which in this case would be desirable for more than maintaining a girlish figure because it gets all over your hands), the waffles turned spongey. Third, it didn't seem to matter whether I used milk or buttermilk, but this was not the time for any kind of buttermilk substitute. I tried it and it was just...gross. So get a quart of buttermilk. Between the chicken and the waffles, you'll use most of it anyway.

I served these sandwiches with some homemade sweet potato fries and Sriracha mayo dip. This is the recipe I use. Don't skip the step that has you soaking the cut sweet potatoes in water. I made the deep fried version since my oven was occupied with chicken, but that means you need to dry them quite thoroughly. Very hot oil and water are a bad combination. The recipe says cook for "several minutes" but my cook times have been consistently longer; about 10-12 minutes.

When you're done with these, you'll have butter-slicked fingers and you'll be dripping BBQ sauce. You'll want some napkins handy. But sometimes messy is fun, right?

Chicken Waffle Sandwiches
adapted from How Sweet Eats and Joy of Cooking
Makes: 4 sandwiches
Time: 2 hour, 45 minutes (Hands on time: 45 minutes)

Chicken
2 chicken breasts, cut in half length-wise
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cups panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup fine bread crumbs
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
high heat cooking spray (not olive oil)

Waffles
1 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

16 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs, well beaten

Sandwiches
1 large tomato
4 leaves lettuce of your choice
1/3 cup BBQ sauce (I like Smokey Bones)

1. Cut chicken breasts in half length-wise and put them in a shallow dish. Pour 1 cup buttermilk over them and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a wire rack on top. Spray the rack with cooking spray.

3. Combine the panko bread crumbs, fine bread crumbs, flour, onion powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Remove the chicken from the buttermilk and dredge in the bread crumb mixture. Press the bread crumbs so they adhere.

3. Put the chicken on the wire rack and spray with cooking spray on top so they crisp in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Flip the chicken, spray the other side and bake for another 10 minutes.

4. While the chicken cooks, start on the waffles. Heat the waffle iron.

5. Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs and melted butter. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Whisk until combined. The batter will be lumpy.

6. Spoon 1/2 cup of batter (or different amount according to your waffle iron's instructions--mine takes 2 cups) into the hot waffle maker. Close the lid and bake until the waffle is golden.

7. Place a slice of tomato, a piece of lettuce, a piece of chicken and a bit of BBQ sauce on each waffle. Top with another waffle and serve immediately.

8. If for some reason you can't serve immediately or you're making more than 4 sandwiches, I had good luck with reheating the fresh or frozen waffles in my toaster. 

Prince of Midnight Roast Chicken and French-Style Beans

I'm a late Laura Kinsale convert. Her first book was published when I was still a kid, but in my early absorption with Julie Garwood and a whole host of Harlequin titles (which could be had for 25 cents each from my local used bookstore), I never ran across her work. It wasn't until I started reading romance blogs and her name kept coming up as the best of the best of romance authors that I picked up Prince of Midnight. And then Flowers From the Storm. And then everything else she has ever written.

In Prince of Midnight, S.T. Maitland is a former highwayman. The reason he stopped marauding is that he suffered an injury that caused permanent dizziness and deafness in one ear. He has shut himself up in a crumbling chateau above a tiny French village. He's not exactly wallowing in self-pity and penury--he has too healthy a sense of humor for that--but he's not far from it either. His only friends are an innkeeper he owes money and an honest-to-goodness wolf named Nemo. He spends his time defending his kitchen garden from rabbits and creating paintings he can never seem to finish. It's a sad come-down for a man who was once the terror of the English countryside.

When practical Leigh Strachan arrives on the scene, she has revenge on her mind. A cult-like figure has murdered her family and she wants the Prince of Midnight to teach her all he knows in order to enact her own justice. She's not at all impressed when presented with S.T. as he is now. She is actually pretty annoyed when he insists on accompanying her back to her hometown to take on her nemesis. And though it gradually becomes obvious to the reader that S.T. is not as useless as he might first appear, it takes Leigh a lot longer to figure that out. What follows is a pretty non-standard road trip romance that just keeps miring the protagonists deeper in both internal and external conflict, which is another thing I love about Kinsale's books. Even though we get our HEA, it remains in actual real doubt for about 95% of the novel.

Though the plot is a bit cumbersome at times, the characters of S.T. and Leigh carry the novel, working through their pain and loss separately and then eventually together. A lot of reviewers have problems with Leigh. She is abrasive and difficult and mercenary in her pain, but that just felt real to me. Though she has been hurt, she hangs onto her innate strength with claws and teeth, which isn't always pretty. The scene where Kinsale uses the process of S.T. teaching Leigh to gentle an abused horse represented a turning point in the novel for me. It's the point where I learned to trust Kinsale unconditionally. It's also where I fell in love forever with S.T., not because of his capability, but how he takes both the horse and Leigh and opens the gate to a different path, one of love instead of pain.

Prince of Midnight has high adventure, a swashbuckling hero, a heroine who learns to trust herself again and several wonderful four-legged characters. The language is literarily lovely and the love story unpredictable. All this adds up to a book that I will reread over and over again for years to come. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Early on in Prince of Midnight, Kinsale spends some time talking about S.T.'s chickens. He can't manage to kill them himself and figures when the time comes, he'll have his pet wolf do it. It's one of the first moments where we get a glimpse of the reality of S.T.'s internal landscape and it stuck with me.

Roasting chicken isn't hard. Just make sure the wingtips point toward the ceiling.

However, if S.T. had ever managed to pick a chicken, here's something he probably could have cooked up. If he had any gardening skills. Or cooking skills. Or really any skills at all that aren't related to swinging a sword, gentling a horse or painting.

A meat thermometer helps a lot. It just beeps at you when the chicken is done. This version takes a little over an hour.

If you're not a housewife like I am, Roasted Bourbon-Rosemary Chicken from Garden & Gun magazine might be best saved for a Sunday night. This chicken takes about an hour and fifteen minutes so grab a glass of wine and your current book and have a snack before you start. It makes a great lazy dinner, plus you have leftover meat for sandwiches during the week. I also save the carcasses for a cheap source of chicken stock. I just stick them in the freezer until I have time to babysit boiling bones for a couple of hours. For true Prince of Midnight flavor, use a free range chicken.

These white beans are amazing. We had a friend over for these and he agreed that he didn't know beans could be this good.

The white beans are from It's All Good, which is Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook. I'm not a big fan of celebrity cookbooks, celebrity diets or celebrity anything really, but this book is phenomenal. I'm printing the recipe below just to convince you to buy it and because I think 3-4 minutes is waaayyy too long to cook garlic. Seriously though, never has healthy tasted this good. Plus, it amuses me that these are Italian beans cooked in a French style. That will make more sense if you have read Kinsale's book and appreciate the research that she clearly put into it.

The roasted asparagus is just a simple alternative to boiling or steaming. This and the beans are so quick, they'd even make an easy addition to any weeknight meal. It's also May so no matter where you live, asparagus should be popping up in your local farmer's market just now. It's skinny and fresh and perfect so it was a clear choice for this late spring meal. As for timing, when you pull the chicken out of the oven to rest, you can start the asparagus and the beans and you'll be eating within 15 minutes.

White Beans, French Style
from It's all Good by Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Turshen
serves 4 as a side, takes 15 minutes

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme (about 2 tsp)
1 large shallot, peeled and thinly sliced
1 - 14-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
course sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp red wine vinegar

1. Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
2. Add the thyme and shallot and cook for 1 minute more until the shallot is just softened.
3. Add the beans and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
4. Add a healthy pinch of sea salt, a few grinds of pepper and the vinegar and cook for 5 minutes more.
5. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted Asparagus
serves 4 as a side, takes 15 minutes

1 pound asparagus
1 tbsp olive oil or olive oil spray
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees and prepare a cookie sheet by covering it with foil.
2. Rinse, drain and trim the bottom ends of the asparagus. The "snap off the end at the weakest point" thing is a myth. Just chop about an inch and a half off the bottom. If they're late season and very thick, you may want to peel them. Place them on the cookie sheet.
3. Sprinkle olive oil or spray the asparagus.
4. Add a generous pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Shake to coat.
5. Roast in the oven for 8-10 minutes depending on the thickness of your asparagus.

Stop by again next Monday when I review Delphine Dryden's newest book, Mai Tai for 2 and give you the recipe for this Chocolate Macadamia Tart with Coconut Whipped Cream. The book was great and this tart will be the best thing you've ever eaten. Seriously.