Sweet and Sour Sauce with Cherry Tomatoes and Cilantro

A lot of what I have been practicing in the kitchen for our daily meals has been wintery types of foods - creamy sauces etc. Today I tried a Cook's Illustrated sauce for chicken breasts that is light and summery with a bit of kick.

4 sautéed chicken breast strips (or see recipe to cook whole chicken breasts)

2 medium shallots, minced

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 1/2 tsps. ground cumin

1 tsp. granulated sugar

2 Tbsps. apple cider vinegar

6 Tbsps. orange juice

1 Tbsp. lime juice

1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1. Prepare your sauce ingredients before cooking the chicken so that the cooking time is reduced and the chicken won't have the chance to get cold, or you can cover the chicken with foil and keep warm in a 250F oven.
2. Cook chicken breasts first and set aside.
3. To make the sauce is a quick affair. Set the skillet with the remaining oil and chicken bits over medium heat. Add shallots, chilli, and cumin; sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Add sugar and cook until shallots begin to caramelize, 1 to 2 minutes.
5. Stir in vinegar and orange and lime juices; increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil, scraping up browned bits from bottom of the skillet with a wooden spoon. Boil the sauce, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to about 1/4 cup, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
6. Immediately stir in tomatoes and cilantro so they slightly cook in the residual heat of the pan; season to taste with salt and pepper (not really necessary).
7. Spoon sauce over chicken; serve immediately.

Fixing the Fancy - Red Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

I often notice that there are some recipes where the ingredients sound fancy but the end product is bland. This often happens with Epicurious recipes, such as the Radicchio, Red Cabbage and Tomatoes with Orange Vinaigrette recipe. I made it because I like radicchio and thought, correctly, that the red salad would be visually appealing, but it was just bitter to taste. Ben played around with it and, in my opinion, fixed it.

NOTE: the cherry tomatoes sliced in half are very important - the acidity and flavour from the escaping juices help balance the bitterness of the radicchio.

1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 small head red cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped

1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 tsps. finely grated fresh orange zest

4 1/2 Tbsps. fresh orange juice

Juice from 1 lemon

1 Tbsp. sugar, or to taste

1 tsp. salt (add more to taste)

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

2 heads radicchio (3/4 pound total), cored and coarsely chopped

2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved

1. Chop onion and soak in cold water, to cover, for 15 minutes.
2. Shred cabbage, salt thoroughly and set in colander to sweat excess water. Leave for 15 minutes, rinse thoroughly with running water and quickly dry on paper towel.
3. While onion soaks and cabbage sweats, whisk together mustard, zest, juices, and salt and pepper to taste with sugar. Add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified.
4. Drain onion well and toss together with radicchio, cabbage, tomatoes, and enough dressing to coat. Toss salad and adjust seasoning using sugar, salt and pepper.