Chicken Madeira & "Lobster" Avocado Salad

Suddenly I had to make lunch yesterday. No planning went into this; I just popped out to the store and hoped for the best - - and a little bit of inspiration.

A fish & fruit salad (fake lobster tails and avocados with an avocado vinaigrette


and a Chicken in Madeira Tomato Sauce

Avocado Lobster Salad

Ingredients

serves 2

• mixed greens
• some rucula [rocket]
• 2 lobster tails
• 1 avocado (sliced longways)
  
• avocado vinaigrette
• 5 T virgin olive oil
• 1 T red wine vinegar
• ¼ avocado (the bits left over from slicing the avocado)
• ¼ t salt

Procedure

1. put greens on a plate
2. distribute rucula around the rim
3. place lobster tail on top - - sliced thinly
   
4. surround, symmetrically, with avocado slices
5. blend oil, vinegar, avocado bits and salt
1. drizzle over the salad

Notes

1. Using enough salt is really important in the vinaigrette. People tend to under-salt this kind of dressing
   
2. A stick blender is ideal for making the vinaigrette

Chicken in Madeira Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

serves 3

• 3 T olive oil
  
• 3 chicken thighs
• 3 T Madeira wine (or port or some type of fortified wine; I used a light sweet port)
  
• 1 C tomato sauce (homemade - sofrito)
• 1 C tomato pureé
  
• 1 onion
• salt
  
• 2 cloves garlic
• red pepper
• cumin (a pinch)
  
• ¼ C water (fresh from the tap)
• 1 red pepper (deseeded)
  
• lemon juice (from a half lemon - fresh)
  
• thyme - fresh from your back porch
  

Procedure

1. Oil into a pan
2. fry the thighs, skin side, until very browned (5, 6, 7 minutes or so)
3. fry the other side until really brown (another 6 minutes)
4. remove the pieces from the pan
5. pour off excess fats & oils
6. deglaze the pan with the port (Madeira)
7. add the tomato sauce
• bring up to a boil/good simmer
8. add enough water so that it's soupy
9. return chicken to the pan - skin side up
   
• get back up to a good simmer
10. Add lemon juice and the red pepper
    
11. Cover with a loose lid and reduce to a slow simmer - for 10 minutes to three quarters of an hour
12. Remove chicken to the serving plate
• Cover loosely with aluminium foil
13. Remove the red pepper
    
14. Reduce tomato sauce so that it's saucy, not soupy
15. Pour over/around chicken pieces
16. Sprinkle a little (very little) bit of thyme leaves over the presentation
    

Notes

1. Browning the chicken, very well, in just a bit of oil will result in crusty brown bits let in the pan bottom; which is what you want; so that you can get it, and its accompanying flavour, into the sauce by deglazing the pan with the port
2. Degalzing is: pouring a liquid into the hot pan and scraping up the flavourful brown stuff that was left from the previous cooking step.
3. Adding water to the tomato sauce before simmering the chicken is to make sure that there's enough liquid to keep the sauce from burning on the bottom of the pan. You could use a really good chicken stock instead of water - - that would be nice
   
4. Chicken Madeira often has mushrooms in it - mine didn't today