One might assume being tasked with recipe development focused on elevating oils and vinegars might be limiting. On the contrary. These ingredients are the cornerstones of every good meal. Without them you’re lost.
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For instance, vinegars. Why the fuss? Well, most of us grew up thinking in terms of savory and sweet and never the twain shall meet. You put salt and pepper on your steak, and sugar on your cookies. Acidity was something that came into play when mom used her vinegar to clean glass or lemon juice to bleach a stain. Or maybe create a nice salad dressing but by that time we were sure Kraft invented salads. Other than the aforementioned, the complexity of all these flavors being combined and crossed over together was a mystery and probably rule-breaking. But in the world of true cooking, one must be mindful that many different tastes are needed for a satisfying and truly memorable meal. 

There are really 4 main elements to almost every cuisine in the world and they’re beautifully explained by Samin Nosrat in her book SALT, FAT, ACID, HEAT. In it she shares this seminal advice: “Season food with the proper amount of salt at the proper moment; choose the optimal medium of fat to convey the flavor of your ingredients; balance and animate those ingredients with acid; apply the right type and quantity of heat for the proper amount of time—do all this and you will turn out vibrant and beautiful food, with or without a recipe.” 

Yeah, this is my kind of narrative. It talks about food as though it were alive. And in truth, it is. Animate ingredients with acid? Fabulous. Without a recipe? Now you’re cooking with your senses and that is the foundation of what makes Bling Cuisine work. And so it is that I present to you this delicious recipe that combines all these elements. It’s danged gorgeous, too!

My creation began the moment I dribbled a bit of this vinegar on my tongue and listened to it tell me where it wanted to go. Since you most likely are not tasting it while reading this, I will tell you it is sweet but carries a kind of maraschino cherry-ness. A bit of spice that is slightly like licorice hits you at the end. YUMMM. As usual, I describe a recipe as though we’re on a tasting-journey. Then as I took another nibble, the idea came:  I will use the vinegar to pickle some cranberries and oranges perhaps adding a bit of honey at the end. I will use this acidic element to balance the peppery, crunchiness of pistachio and the smooth, creaminess of the lemon-infused goat cheese all rolled inside a chicken breast. And when it came together in real life? Well, each bite was amazing. It was festive and fresh. And as Samin states, vibrant and beautiful!

​#blingcuisine #caminecooks #ifeellikecooking #blingrecipes #holidayrecipes

Pounding out the chicken pieces to just the right thickness will help to showcase a tighter, swirling display of goat cheese and pistachio stuffing. Make this sauce when you need a quick accompaniment to ham, turkey or even with seafood. It goes with everything and looks like a precious set of jewels on your plate.

INGREDIENTS:
PICKLED CRANBERRY SAUCE:

• 6 ounces bagged fresh cranberries
• ½ C water
• 2 T honey
• 1 C Umeboshi Plum White Balsamic Vinegar from Olive This!
• 2 Clementines peeled and sectioned
• ½ t cracked black pepper

CHICKEN:

• 3 large skinless boneless chicken breasts, about 8-10 ounces each
• 2/3 C salted shelled pistachios, divided
• 1/3 C Italian breadcrumbs. I used Progresso brand
• 1, 4 oz. package plain goat cheese (Don’t use the crumbled goat cheese. Need the soft version)
• Zest from one large lemon
• 1 large garlic clove grated
• 1 large egg
• 2 T cream (2% milk with also work)
• 1/3 C chopped Italian leaf parsley reserving some for garnish when serving meal
• 1 ½ t kosher salt + ½ t black pepper
• 2 T olive oil to grease baking dish and a couple T olive oil to drizzle over the top

 
METHOD:
Put cranberries in a small saucepan covered with the ½ C water. Bring to boil, reduce to medium and cook for about 3-5 minutes, stirring often, until all the cranberries have popped open. Remove from heat and add the 1 C of Umeboshi Plum White Balsamic Vinegar and the orange sections. Stir into the hot liquid. Cover and set aside until ready to use. Or refrigerate when cooled to room temperature, and then when ready to serve put it back in a small saucepan and heat thoroughly. DO NOT BOIL. Right before serving add 2 T honey and 1/8 t black cracked pepper and blend well.
 
Empty the goat cheese into a small bowl and add the lemon zest, and the grated ginger. Blend well. Take the first 1/3 C of pistachios and chop with a knife into chunky pieces. Try to at least cut them so no large nuts remain. Set that aside. Take the other 1/3 C of pistachios and chop them finely. I used a small food chopper to make them large crumb-size. You could use a coffee grinder; just be careful you don’t chop them too small. These are the nuts that will be used for breading the chicken.
 
For chicken cut each of the three breast sections in half lengthwise. (Note that a normal skinless whole boneless breast is the two halves, making 6 pieces. That’s too much. I used a package that was simply three halves, the usual way they’re packaged in most supermarkets.) Place the cut chicken pieces in a large plastic bag and using a mallet, gently but assertively pound them out to a little more than 1/2” thickness. I worked in two batches and used a gallon sized zip-lock so I could control the thickness more effectively.
 
Preheat your oven to 375° F. Gently oil an oblong glass baking dish.
 
Lay out the pounded breast pieces on a cutting board. Using a small spatula, spread the goat cheese, garlic, and lemon zest mixture over each of the breast keeping the mixture just inside the edges. Now sprinkle with just a bit of chopped parsley leaves. And generously salt and pepper them. I probably used about 1 ½ teaspoon of kosher salt and about ½ t black pepper evenly divided. Sprinkle the large pistachio pieces over the goat cheese dividing them evenly among the 6 chicken pieces. Rolling from the short side, roll them tightly and secure by tying with two pieces of food-grade twine on each end about ¼ of the way in. Tie it firmly but don’t squish the chicken. Cut off the ends of the knotted twine.
 
Crack the egg into a bowl big enough to fit each chicken rollup, add the cream and using a fork blend it until smooth. Empty the finely ground pistachios into another bowl with the Italian breadcrumbs. Blend the crumbs evenly with the nuts. Working quickly so you don’t let them sit in the egg, take a rollup and immerse it in the egg wash, and then roll in the pistachio breadcrumb mixture. Shake off the excess. Place them in the greased glass baking dish evenly spaced. Drizzle with a bit more olive oil in a very thin stream.
 
Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. You can test doneness by gently pressing on it with your index finger. If it doesn’t yield too much they’re done. If they squish in, they may need about 5 more minutes. DO NOT overcook. The chicken is thin so it will bake quickly.
 
Serve chicken over white rice alongside buttered broccoli and top with a ladle of the hot pickled cranberry orange sauce.
 
©Photo and Recipes by Copyright, Camine Pappas, 2014 - 2021

Here’s another confession for all my crazy and loyal followers:  Food is not silent. It has a clear and authentic voice that actually speaks. It is screaming inspiration to you all the time. You’re busy checking with your friends about recipe combinations and culling through cookbooks or blogs for direction. And yet all you need are your taste buds. In the case of this elegantly infused Elderberry Balsamic Vinegar, one need only to close one’s eyes. Press the vinegar thoughtfully between your teeth and tongue. Take it to the back of your mouth and let it coat your tongue. Now pause and breathe. Wow! Intense! Right?

When I tasted this Olive This! Elderberry Balsamic Vinegar, I was transported to a place where soft flowers blend with tart cherries. A place where an herbal hint of berry was almost perfume-like but still sweet like candy with just the right tartness. After I smacked my lips and opened my eyes? Well, all I could think of was making this into a dessert. I could tell that it had qualities like vanilla, but with a depth that was screaming to be featured as a main flavor.

After finding one of my favorite soft sugar cookie recipes, one that I knew would yield a good chew but not crumble, I decided a bit of this balsamic nectar would be just as much at home in the batter as in the lovely icing I was planning to create to sandwich them together. We add other oils to batters like lemon oil, almond oil, and so forth. Surely this elderberry would work as well!

On another note, if you research Elderberry trees you find it has all kinds of health benefits. It has a dark berry fruit that is often used for jam. So right there I knew I was right. My food was blabbering away with genius. If you’re still a little unsure of my logic about adding this to a dessert, remember we add balsamic to strawberries and it’s divine!

So, what makes a balsamic vinegar a balsamic? All of them are derived from a thousand-year-old process developed around the area of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy. Traditional balsamic vinegar is made from "grape must" which is the juice from freshly pressed grapes, aged for a minimum of 12 years in a series of successively smaller wooden barrels, each made from a different type of wood — oak, juniper, mulberry, ash, cherry, and chestnut. Because the wood is porous the vinegar loses moisture over time, and becomes more concentrated, eventually reaching a syrupy consistency. Olive This! balsamics are then infused with plant extracts to produce the lovely flavors you enjoy. 

So back to the cookies. Oh, how gorgeous are they? And the icing with the hint of sophisticated cherry, was really more delicious than I expected. I truly can’t wait for you to try them. The perfect dessert to bring to your Thanksgiving Feast. They will freeze beautifully and perhaps, in the end, you too will believe in the voices of your food calling you to greatness!

INGREDIENTS:
2 T divided, Olive This! Elderberry Balsamic Vinegar
12 Amareno Cherries* (or Luxardo Gourmet Cherries)
2 t of Cherry syrup*
¾ C Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (optional)
24 Betty Crocker Soft Sugar Cookies BELOW
 
ICING:
2 C powdered sugar
4 T salted butter, softened
2 T Elderberry Balsamic Vinegar
2 t of the cherry syrup
Dash of salt (about 1/8 t)
2 T milk or cream
3-5 drops of red food coloring to keep the frosting a nice color!

METHOD:
Prepare the sugar cookie recipe and add 2 t Elderberry Balsamic to the dough at the point when you add the eggs. Blend as usual and incorporate the balsamic. Finish and form into balls and cook as directed in recipe. Cool. Prepare icing by starting with the liquids and adding the powdered sugar until you have a soft but fairly stiff icing. You want it to stay inside the two cookie halves. Fill with about 2 heaping T of the icing or more if you prefer. Drizzle with melted semi-sweet chocolate or leave it off and use a dot of icing to keep the cherry in place.
 
Melt the semi-sweet chips gently in the microwave heating slowly and stirring often. When fully melted and soft, put into a small baggie and cut of a very small tip at the corner. Pipe the soft chocolate onto the cookies, nest in a cherry. Dust with powdered sugar at the end if desired.

BETTY CROCKER SUGAR COOKIES
This is the recipe showing the ingredients halved as I made it | Makes 24 cookies
INGREDIENTS:
C shortening
1 C white sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
Add 1 T of the Elderberry Balsamic Vinegar
Pinch of t salt
3 egg yolks, halved (Add all 3 yolks to a bowl, whisked them together, and used half the mixture)
¾ C + 1/8 C all-purpose flour
 
METHOD: Preheat oven to 300° F. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
Using a stand mixture with the paddle attachment blend the shortening on high for 30 seconds. Add the sugar and blend well for another 30 seconds. Add the baking soda, cream of tarter, egg yolks, balsamic vinegar, and salt. Blend well. Add the flour a little at a time until it comes together. Form into balls. Cook for about 14 minutes being careful not to let them brown on the edges. Remove from oven, let sit for 2 minutes. Place cookies on a cooling rack and when completely cool, follow instructions above to fill with icing, pipe with chocolate, top with cherry, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

*NOTE: You could substitute Maraschino Cherries and their syrup but this will give a more almond flavor. If you do substitute it, I suggest you add about 1/3 C toasted chopped almonds to the sugar batter just to change it up!
 
©Recipe and Photo Copyright Camine Pappas, 2021. All rights reserved.