Chicken Paprikash

As we're cooking tonight, Matt says to me: "We should follow our dreams, quit our jobs, and open a restaurant." To which I replied, "I quit my restaurant job years ago to follow my dreams."

The main ingredient here is paprika, sure there's a bunch of other tasty flavors in this one, but the main ingredient is definitely paprika. We did a double dish tonight preparing the classic chicken paprikash side by side with a vegetarian version that subbed the chicken for eggplant. We used a "baby eggplant" cut it into slices and sauteed them till they looked about half way done before adding the other veggies. Word on the street is you cant over cook eggplant, but you can under cook it (we ended up under cooking it).

Recipe Serves: 4 people + refrigerators can have some too
Prep Time: 30 Minutes

Ingredients:

Paprika
1.5 lb (24oz) of Chicken (for a vegetarian version sub Eggplant)
Black pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Onions
Carrots
Mushrooms
Sour Cream

Dumplings
4 Eggs
Flour
Baking Powder
Salt
1 Tbsp Melted Butter


Cooking it up:
Cube chicken and pan fry in a wok with oil, black pepper and a generous amount of paprika. Once seared all the way around add the onions, carrots, and mushrooms. Saute for a few until onions are limp and then add 1/2 cup water, cover and simmer.

In a mixing bowl prepare the sauce, whisk sour cream with flower and water. We set this aside for later while the main dish simmer for a little while longer.

For the dumplings start a tall pot with boiling water. In a mixing bowl whisk eggs baking powder and salt add melted butter and then add flower till mixture is the consistency somewhere between a thick pancake batter and chocolate chip cookie doe.

At this point add the sauce to the wok, cover and reduce heat to low.

back to the dumplings, drop the batter into the boiling water a spoonful at a time, dipping the spoon into the boiling water each time to aide in slipping the doe off the spoon. Act fast so all the drops cook evenly - boil till firm, remove from heat and strain off water.

Serve it up starting with a few dumplings and pouring the main dish over top with plenty of extra sauce. I hope you have your fork ready, time to dig in!

More on Eggplant:
If you've never had eggplant (aka auburgine, brinjal) I highly recommend trying some. In the photo to the left you can see that they are neat looking things with an interesting purple color.

Eggplant is native to India & Asia since prehistory.

Today there are several cultivated varieties. These perennial plants that can grow to nearly 5ft in height! As seen in the photo on the right the eggplant just hangs out dangling from the tree until they are ready for harvesting (3months).

There are so many ways to cook eggplant grilling, baking, fried, sauteed, stuffed, the list goes on. Just make sure when you purchase eggplant make sure it is heavy, firm, glossy, and dent free. If it's brown it's probably not a good idea to eat it anymore. The eggplant taste is slightly bitter and develops flavor while cooking. The thirsty vegetable absorbs lots of liquids and flavor while cooking, so you can get wild on the seasonings. Recommended ones include: allspice, basil, bay leaves, garlic, Chile powder, oregano, sage, thyme, marjoram, and parsley. In this case we tried paprika, it turned out great! Don't be afraid to get creative.