Spring Veggies with Mustard Sauce

Asparagus is in abundance right now. It is easy to find, inexpensive, delicious, and nutritious. While I enjoy it steamed with some salt and pepper, it can get a little boring. So I came up with this simple recipe. It will make a great side to just about any chicken or fish dish, in fact I paired it along side our Broiled Tilapia Parmesan and it worked really well. And while I just used asparagus, onion, and mushrooms, I think that zuchinni and perhpas some green peppers would also add a great flavor to this mix.

Sautéed Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce

This is a great little recipe that looks and tastes great, but is in fact quite simple. The mustard sauce is quite tasty and goes well over other vegetables - in fact I would suggest serving it with some steamed asparagus and with our recipe for Roasted Cauliflower. This sauce would also be delicious over grilled fish or roasted potatoes.

Sautéed Chicken in Mustard-Cream SauceRecipe from Everyday Food, Great Food Fast
Pictures by Caroline
Makes 4 servings

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 ounces each)
Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup dry white wine or chicken broth
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon dried tarragon (or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh)*
*I didn’t have tarragon, so I substituted ½ teaspoon fennel seeds

Directions:
(Note: I always like to fillet my chicken breasts before I fry them so that they have more flavor. To do this, use frozen chicken and let partially de-thaw. Then, using a sharp knife, place one hand on the top of the chicken breast and slice horizontally through the middle to have two even halves.)
1. Sprinkle each chicken breast with ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken; sauté until cooked through, 19 to 12 minutes, turning once. Transfer to a plate; keep warm.
2. Pour the wine into the hot skillet; cook, stirring, until reduced by half, about 1 minute. Whisk in the cream, mustard, and tarragon. Cook, whisking until thickened, about 2 minutes.
3. Pour any accumulated chicken juices into the sauce. Right before serving, drizzle the cream sauce over the sautéed chicken.

Salmon in Phyllo

If you like salmon, or you only like it so-so, this is the recipe for you. Why? Because you get the healthiness of the fish (although this recipe includes a lot of butter), but it's wrapped in dough, and you get to dip it in a creamy, mustard sauce...hard to go wrong there. Here are a few hints, when you make the mustard sauce stir it constantly after you put the cream in so that it doesn't burn. Cook it until it's thick enough that when you pull a spatula through it leaves a trail for a moment (as seen in the above, left picture). Next, use fresh phyllo dough, which I didn't and it made things, shall we say, difficult. I've made this recipe before and it was much easier with fresh phyllo dough. I had some in my freezer that had already been open, and it was dried out and made wrapping difficult. If you use fresh dough, it is much easier, I promise.

I served this recipe with some white rice and steamed veggies, so I figured it would be okay to have some Peanut-Butter Finger Bars or Milk Chocolate Chunk-Peanut Butter Cookies (guess I in a peanut-butter chocolate mood; nothing unusual about that).

Salmon in Phyllo
Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens
Pictures by Caroline

Salmon:
1 pound fresh or frozen skinless salmon fillets, about ½ inch thick
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted (I ended up using almost twice this amount because my dough was so dried out; again, use fresh phyllo)
2 tablespoons snipped fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill
Dash salt
Dash black pepper
8 sheets frozen phyllo dough (18x14-inch rectangles), thawed
1 recipe Mustard Cream Sauce

1. Thaw salmon, if frozen. Rinse salmon; pat dry with paper towels. Cut salmon into 4 serving-size pieces, in necessary (I like to cut mine into about 2 inch pieces). Brush some of the melted butter over each salmon potion. Sprinkle with dill, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
2. Unfold phyllo dough; cover with plastic wrap. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough flat; brush with some of the melted butter. Top with another sheet of phyllo dough. Brush with more butter. Add 6 more sheets of dough (a total of 8 sheets), brushing each sheet with butter. Cut into four 9x7-inch rectangles (or as big as you need for your salmon pieces). Place a salmon fillet, buttered dies down, in the middle of a dough rectangle. Fold a long side of the dough over salmon; repeat with the other long side, brushing dough with butter and pressing lightly. Fold up ends. Repeat with remaining rectangles, butter, and salmon. Arrange bundles, seam sides down, on a baking sheet. Brush with butter.
3. Bake in 375° oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until phyllo dough is golden and fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve with Mustard Cream Sauce.

Mustard Cream Sauce:
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots (about 1 small shallot)
1 cup half-and-half (I used milk and it worked fine)
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon white or black pepper
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard

Combine 1/3 cup dry white wine and 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots in a small saucepan. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes or until the liquid is reduced to about 3 tablespoons, stirring occasionally. Stir 1 cup half-and-half or light cream into 4 teaspoons all-purpose flour. Stir into sine mixture with 1/8 teaspoon white or black pepper. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly (sauce may look curdled). Stir in 1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard. Cook and stir for 1 minute more.