Clarifying Julia and butter

Last night while making dinner, Jonathan, my fiance (newly, so still slightly freaked out by that word) decided that he wanted to try something new. I had taken out of the freezer a chicken breast for him but hadn't worked out what we were going to do with it yet. That was his job. Since we have arrived in France, I have embodied the perfect house wife, and I'm damn good at it. I can multi-task and bake cakes, write blogs, respond to emails and do the washing all at once. But god damn it, the vegetarian does not need to cook the chicken as well.

I'm getting distracted, where was I? Jonathan was deciding what to do with the chicken breast. Where does he go to but my Julia Child cookbook. I know, even the mention of that word in a blog makes me quiver with cliched chills, but don't worry, I promise not to dwell too much on it,and not do more than one posting about the JC word (jesus christ?) She is just about elevated to that status now in the blog world!

So, what does he decide to make? Supremes de Volaille a la Milanaise, basically a fancy french chicken schnitzel. "But it is coated in parmesan cheese, this is my favourite," he says with a puppy dog face and imploring eyes. Of course, he can make whatever he wants with the defrosted chicken, and at least he is the one following the JC recipe and not this blogger!

Supremes de Volaille a la Milanaise calls for a supremes, or chicken breast, salt, pepper, flour, 1 egg, freshly grated Parmesan cheese and fresh white bread crumbs. The recipe was suprisingly easy for a JC creation. Basically you dip the breast into the beaten egg, roll it in the cheese and bread crumbs, pat it in place and allow it to sit for 10 minutes before frying it. Then comes the importance bit, and basically the reason for my posting. What do you fry it in, that's right, you guessed it, BUTTER. And not just any butter, clarified butter. And what do you serve the chicken with? Brown butter sauce!

So what is clarified butter? it is butter which is melted to separate the clear butter liquid and thick milk solids, which is a protein rich solution. When this is removed what you have left is pure buttery gold lava. Tell me again why french women don't get fat?

Explaining what clarified butter was to Jonathan is when I had the light bulb moment for this blog - the genius french chefs actually invented a more fattening, more creamy, more indulgent creation than butter itself. What is just too funny though is that brown butter sauce in french is called Beurre Noisette - guess if I ever order that one in a restaurant I will know what I'm getting!

Merci,

Mel