On 2020-01-15 12:39 a.m., Sqwertz wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Jan 2020 15:19:10 -0700, graham wrote:
>
>> Last night I cooked a dish from an old BBC "Good Food" magazine: Chicken
>> with lemon, tarragon and crème fraîche by Mary Cadogan.
>> The recipe was for:
>> 2 lemons
>> 4 chicken breasts with skin
>> Fresh tarragon
>> Wholegrain mustard
>> 200ml crème fraîche
>>
>> I had to modify it slightly because only skinless breasts were
>> available. She instructed to put thin slices of lemon and sprigs of
>> tarragon under the skin before squeezing the juice from the remaining
>> 1.5 lemons.
>> Spread each with the mustard and roast for 20 minutes at 375F. Then
>> sprinkle the chicken with chopped tarragon and pour over the lemon juice
>> and roast for another 10 minutes. Remove breasts and keep warm while you
>> thicken the sauce with the cream on the hob.
>>
>> I cooked the chicken on a bed of tarragon with the lemon slices instead.
>> The chicken was delicious but the lemon flavour in the sauce was waaay
>> too strong. The sour cream substitute didn't thicken the sauce much and
>> I had to add a little flour.
>>
>> I've come across the lemon problem before and in future, I will halve
>> the number of lemons specified in savoury dishes.
>
> Since it was probably just too acidic rather than too much lemon
> flavor, I would have added a pinch(*) of baking soda to the sauce
> when I tasted it. Do this before thickening.
>
> I also use this spaghetti/pasta sauces when using canned tomatoes
> that have added citric acid. It makes huge improvement and brings
> out some sweetness. It also cures any "harsh" flavors from sauces
> and gravies made from meat drippings, especially those left in the
> bag from sous vide meat (I can't explain this last one as there
> shouldn't be any acid in there unless you got some lacto taint from
> a longer cook of 6+ hours at less than 142F).
>
> Pinch, stir well, and wait for any foaming to subside (15 seconds).
> Taste, rinse, repeat if necessary. It's very easy to remove too
> much (or all) of the acid.
>
> (*) 1/4 tsp would probably take out ALL the acid from 2 lemons.
>
> =sw
>
That's an interesting take on acidic foods. Most add a bit of sugar to
tomato sauces to overcome the harshness.
On another tack, why do restaurants always serve a lemon segment with
fish? I never touch it, preferring to taste the fish as it is.