food Poulet Basquaise (Basque Chicken)

[PHB]

Hi all,

I wanted to share a recipe we often do where I live (south west of France) and this recipe include peppers of course.

In French this is called "Poulet Basquaise" which means "Basque Chicken". The "Pays Basque," or "Euskal Herria" in "Euskara" (the Basque language), is the Basque Country in the south west of France. This place is not only know for ETA (which plants bombs everywhere they can ...) but also for growing the Espelette Pepper :

This pepper is not hot at all, but we use it quite a lot in our meals.

So here are the ingredients :

1 chicken cut in pieces
1 can of full tomatoes in their juice
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 espellette pepper (you can switch with any pepper you like)
1 Maggi Cube Chicken (I'll explain)
3 shallots
2 spoon of olive oil
1 mug of white wine (you can put half a bottle ...)
salt
pepper

Then its very simple :
1 - Chop the shallots, the peppers and the chicken
2 - Put olive oil in a pot and start frying the shallots and peppers
3 - Then put the chicken
4 - When the chicken looks ok, add the can of tomatoes and the wine and the Maggi Cube, salt & pepper
5 - Cover stir from time to time. Cook until the chicken become soft. When you pick a fork in the chicken it should split in pieces. It usually takes 4 hours of cooking.

So the Maggi cube is this :

I don't know the equivalent in the US. It's basically cube of powders of dehydrated chicken bouillon (soup chicken).

Tips : don't use fresh tomatoes ! Basically, never use fresh tomatoes for sauce dishes, because they are not mature enough. You need very red and mature tomatoes.

It should look like this :

It's very easy to make and I hope you will enjoy.

When eating it listen to this :

You will feel like you are a real Basque patriot !

"GORA ETA" (no I'm kidding ... I can't stand these guys ...)

 

[PIC 1]

Nice simply recipe with a gourmet plating photo....

Now I have a taste for "Coq au Vin"

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Nice! Looks like a French cacciatore but better. Dig the peppers.

 

[RocketMan]

Ok, I don't get to use this very often and probably messed it up, but here goes;

Bon Appitite ! Plat tres gentil et simple. Aimez-le ! Nous avons habite a Nancy quand j'etais jeune. Maintenant ou la famille entiere se reunit nous sommes tous dans la fixation de cuisine quelque chose francaise ou une grande Paella. Ce que jamais c'est moi jurez qu'il est bon et plus qu'assez pour bourrer chacun.

Sante !
RM

 

[Nigel]

Do you speak Euskadi? Very interesting language indeed, with no relationship to any of the languages spoken in surrounding or close countries. What`s the current idea on where it came from?

 

[geeme]

Thanks - I may try it in the slow cooker, see what happens...

 

[PHB]

Do you speak Euskadi? Very interesting language indeed, with no relationship to any of the languages spoken in surrounding or close countries. What`s the current idea on where it came from?

No I don't speak Euskara, but I made a record about the basque culture when I was in high school. This language is the only isolate language in Europe (no link with any other language) and seems to be the oldest language in Europe (it's a not a indo-european language). According to Arthur Mourant, the basque are probably the oldest living "tribe" in Europe and kept part of their primitive gene even if they met quite a lot of immigrants (no F1 offspring ...). That's why they have such a high ratio Rhesus Negative blood group system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rh_blood_group_system#Population_data).

To make it simple : Basque are Neanderthal people who never moved from their cave since 70 000 BJC ....