Parmesan Chicken

Where's the chicken you say? It's hiding under a blanket of yummy herb salad goodness. Click on photo to find it.

Yesterday, I hit a couple Asian markets as I had a wicked craving for dumplings. We are lucky to have quite a few from which to choose. I had a free afternoon, so I spent a couple hours exploring the aisles and spying on what people were buying. After grabbing some fresh rice noodles and Napa cabbage, I ran into a shelf of Panko. It reminded me of this recipe. So, I cooked it tonight for Andrea. Yes, I rocked the Panko.

Parmesan Chicken (Barefoot Contessa Family Style, 2002)

4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 extra-large eggs
1 tablespoon water
1 1/4 cups seasoned dry bread crumbs (avoid the stuff at the store, get Panko!)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
Unsalted butter
Good olive oil
Salad greens for 6, washed and spun dry
1 recipe Lemon Vinaigrette, recipe follows

Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/4-inch thick. You can use either a meat mallet or a rolling pin. Great stress reliever.

On a second plate, beat the eggs with 1 tablespoon of water. On a third plate, combine the bread crumbs and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan. Coat the chicken breasts on both sides with the flour mixture, then dip both sides into the egg mixture and dredge both sides in the bread-crumb mixture, pressing lightly.


Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook 2 or 3 chicken breasts on medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Add more butter and oil and cook the rest of the chicken breasts. Toss the salad greens with lemon vinaigrette. Place a mound of salad on each hot chicken breast. Serve with extra grated Parmesan.

Lemon Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Can I recommend a salad mix? Try the Earthbound Farm Organic Fresh Herb Salad Mix.

Bacon, Potato and Cheddar Frittata

Everybody knows about my infatuation with the frittata. It is perfect for when you have visitors at breakfast. My old standby recipe comes from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Family Style, but this morning I decided to deviate and tried a new approach from Cook's Illustrated. I love Cook's Illustrated because its authors are a bunch of closeted, science geeks who take pride in the fact that their audience can actually replicate the outcome of their recipes perfectly. Not many cookbook authors can confidently say the same.

Bacon, Potato, and Cheddar Frittata
Cook's Illustrated (May 1, 2005)

12 large eggs
3 tablespoons half-and-half
1/2 tsp Table salt
1/4 tsp Ground black pepper
8 oz bacon (about 8 slices), cut crosswise into 1/4 inch pieces
1 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 in cubes
4 oz cheddar cheese, cut into 1/4-inch cubes (about 3/4 cup)
3 scallions, sliced thin on the bias (about 1/3 cup)

Use ovensafe nonstick 12-inch skillet.

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position, about 5 inches from heating element; heat broiler. Whisk eggs, half-and-half, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in medium bowl until well combined, about 30 seconds. Set eggs aside.

Fry bacon in 12-inch nonstick ovensafe skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 9 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate; pour off all but 1 tablespoon of bacon fat. Add potatoes to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir cheddar, scallions, and bacon into eggs; add egg mixture to skillet and cook, using spatula to stir and scrape bottom of skillet, until large curds form and spatula begins to leave wake but eggs are still very wet, about 2 minutes. Shake skillet to distribute eggs evenly; cook without stirring for 30 seconds to let bottom set.

Slide skillet under broiler and broil until frittata has risen and surface is puffed and spotty brown, 3 to 4 minutes; when cut into with paring knife, eggs should be slightly wet and runny. Remove skillet from oven and let stand 5 minutes to finish cooking; using spatula, loosen frittata from skillet and slide onto platter or cutting board. Cut into wedges and serve.

Since I was just making this for Andrea and me, I cut the recipe in half. As you can see from the photo, I had too much filling and not enough egg. Too much potato, in fact. The potato I used was too big, but I committed to 100% of it and got burned. Because there was too much potato, the potato to bacon ratio was off which made things a little ugly in our household as nobody messes with Andrea's bacon.

From my experience, the egg is supposed to fluff up around the filling. This did not happen. It was a breakfast potato discus, more like a hash. It tasted great, but each bite was inconsistent. One would hope that each bite would contain a bit of egg, potato, bacon, scallion, and cheese. This wasn't the case. Next time I make this, I'll need to cut everything a little smaller and be sure to distribute everything evenly before it sets up.

Salsa di Pomodoro Arrostito

Here's another recipe for all of those tomatoes that are about to go to tomato heaven in your pantry. Like you, Andrea and I are oozing lycopene from all of the tomatoes we have been eating.

Salsa di Pomodoro Arrostito (Roasted Tomato Sauce)
from 1,000 Italian Recipes, by Michele Scicolone

2 1/2 pounds round, plum, cherry, or grape tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
Salt
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil, parsley, or other herbs

Place a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Oil a 13 x 9 x 2-inch nonreactive baking pan.

Coarsely chop round or plum tomatoes into 1/2-inch pieces. Cut cherry or grape tomatoes into halves or quarters.


Spread the tomatoes in the pan. Sprinkle with the garlic, salt, and crushed red pepper. Drizzle with the olive oil and stir gently. Roast 30 to 45 minutes or until the tomatoes are lightly browned. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and stir in the herbs. Serve hot or at room temperature.

As many of you are aware, I'm not a huge pasta fan. It's probably due to the thousands of spaghetti feeds I've attended. The sauce is the deal breaker for me. I know "fresh is best" is a cliché, but it rings true. Believe me, ask Andrea, I've given canned and jarred pasta sauce a try and every time it is a disappointment. People. Make the world a better place. Avoid it. Just get a can of diced tomatoes, saute some garlic in olive oil, simmer the tomatoes in the same pan, salt, pepper, fresh basil or oregano, if you have it, and you'll have a one way ticket to the pasta palace.

Random Food Shots

Andrea got her grill on and made this wicked pita sandwich that was topped with a ravishing cucumber raita. Perhaps she'll blog about it.

I threw together some Husker cupcakes for the Wake Forest game. Peep my kindergarten piping skills. I've noticed that, in the food world, if a dish is prepared sloppily, like my cupcakes, it is frequently referred to as "rustic".

Guacamole

Andrea and I replaced Cleveland's lack of sunshine, beauty, and friendliness with guacamole from Chipotle. It truly was a comfort food. (Probably explains why we gained so much weight.) We've been trying to find a recipe that replicates it. We've almost found it with this one. It's ever so close.

Guacamole

1 large ripe avocado, peeled,pitted
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 large serrano chilies, seeded, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mash up avocado with a fork or electric mixer. Add lime juice. Add all other ingredients and mix to your desired consistency. We like ours thick and chunky.

P.S. Does anybody else get irritated when people call it Chipolte (Chip-ol-tee)? C'mon people the "t" is placed before the "l", how is that so difficult? Hey, wanna git some guacamolee at chipoltee?

Cheese Puffs

I was looking through our photos this week and found this experiment of cheese debauchery. Thought I would post. I think I made them back in July because I remember bringing them to Jazz on the Green.

Cheese Puffs (from Barefoot in Paris, 2004)

1 cup milk
1/4-pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pinch nutmeg
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 extra-large eggs
1/2 cup grated Gruyere, plus extra for sprinkling
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a saucepan, heat the milk, butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg over medium heat, until scalded. Add the flour all at once and beat it vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together. Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat for 2 minutes. The flour will begin to coat the bottom of the pan. Dump the hot mixture into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Immediately add the eggs, Gruyere, and Parmesan and pulse until the eggs are incorporated and the dough is smooth and thick.

Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip. Pipe in mounds 1 1/4 inches wide and 3/4-inch high onto the baking sheets. With a wet finger, lightly press down the swirl at the top of each puff. (You can also use 2 spoons to scoop out the mixture and shape the puffs with damp fingers.)Brush the top of each puff lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with a pinch of Gruyere. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown outside but still soft inside.

I don't use Gruyere that much as it isn't Andrea's favorite cheese, so I don't have a lot of experience with it. However, the combination of Gruyere and parmesan gave them a savory nuttiness...whatever that means. Let's just say they tasted fancy. I cross-referenced Gruyere and parmesan in Dornenburg and Page (2006) and a Zinfandel is on both lists.

Tomato Bread Soup

Uh, sorry 'bout disappearing for six months. I was holed up studying for my board exams. However, the nonsense is over now. Back into the kitchen, right? I actually have Nick Schicker to thank for the motivation for this entry. He recently moved to Japan and started a new blog. You should check it out at www.extendedadventure.blogspot.com. Anyway, he's linked to mine and I would hate to embarrass him in front of his hipster Japanese friends with an outdated blog.

At work, around 5pm, my brain decided to clock out. Instead of leaving like a normal person, I turned to mindless internet surfing. I checked my RSS reader and revisited a great food blog called The Wednesday Chef. Her most recent post took us through the recipe I tried today, Tomato Bread Soup (Bill Telepan, New York Times). I'm surprised I even tried this recipe because I HATE TOMATO SOUP. However, I realized that my only real experience with tomato soup is the canned kind. I scanned the ingredients and thought what Andrea later verbalized, "One can't go wrong with this combination of ingredients." It's true. Check them out.

3 pounds plum tomatoes
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, minced
3 cloves garlic
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups sourdough bread, without crusts, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup grated ricotta salata
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil leaves

I guarantee the majority of you have these ingredients at home. No trip to the store needed. Plus, we all know that it is "what the heck do we do with all these tomatoes" time and this recipe is a perfect way to burn through your garden bounty. Note the recipe calls for ricotta salata. Do you think any store in Lincoln has this stuff? No. Should I be surprised? Not really. Even Lincoln's famous Leon's Food Market didn't have it. This self-proclaimed "specialty food store" has , so far, been one disappointment after another for me, but that is for another blog entry. Back to the food. I used asiago instead of ricotta salata. (Be sure to hide the asiago from your wife, if she's part mouse.)

Play Tegan and Sara's new album The Con. Core and quarter plum tomatoes. Place tomatoes in food processor and pulse to chop. Keep it chunky. Heat oil in 4-quart saucepan. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft, but not browned. Add tomatoes and their juices. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a slow simmer and cook 45 minutes, covered, stirring from time to time. (Andrea and I went for a quick bike ride.) When the soup has simmered for 45 minutes, stir the bread cubes (less is more) into the soup and simmer for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Check the seasoning. Serve hot or at room temperature, with grated cheese and minced basil strewn on each serving.

We took dinner outside. Flavor: Garlicky Sweet. Texture: Mushy, not soupy. I used too much bread. Will use less next time. It absorbed the majority of the broth. Andrea gave it two thumbs up. I will definitely make it again as it was a very easy meal with few ingredients, but a lot of flavor. We forgot to serve it with wine, but will next time. Dornenburg and Page (2006) recommend a Pinot Noir with cooked tomatoes.

Curried Noodle Patties

Since Andrea and I are under the weather, we needed food that 1) did not require us going to the grocery store, 2) lifted our spirits, and 3) opened our nasal passages. Upon opening our pantry, I noticed we had oodles of noodles. Upon spying said noodles, a memory was triggered that I had recently purchased the ingredients for a curried noodle patty recipe I ran across on the very first food blog I read called 101cookbooks. Go the site right now. Even a person who does not have the slightest interest in cooking can be amazed by her ability to photograph food.

On a side note, I apologize for my horrible food photos. I need to grab the two photography textbooks I own and teach myself how to make my creations appear more visually pleasing on the site. Or, somehow, just somehow, try to convince Nebraska Photographer of the Year (2x) Matt Miller (see his site, link on the right) to teach me how to do it.

Back to the noodles. Since curry was a crucial ingredient in the recipe, we deemed it the perfect meal. Here are the ingredients:

1-2 teaspoons (red) Thai curry paste
4 eggs
6 ounces tofu, diced (roughly 2/3 cup)
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
6 green onions, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4 cups noodles, cold (I used soba noodles.)
2 tablespoons sesame or olive oil
peanuts, green onions and cilantro for garnish

Smash and spread the curry paste around the bottom of a medium bowl. Add one of the eggs and stir until the curry paste is well incorporated. Whisk in the rest of the eggs. Stir in the tofu, cilantro, green onions, and salt. Add the noodles and mix by hand.

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. I think sesame is the best. (Miller this is a good recipe for your cast iron.) Swirl 1/3 cup of the noodle mixture on the skillet and cook in batches for 3-5 minutes on each side, until golden. Be patient when frying. Make sure each side gets crusty brown. That will ensure the noodles inside will stay within the patty. Season with salt and garnish with a sprinkling of green onion, cilantro, and peanuts. (We did not have peanuts in the pantry. Andrea took them to work. Boo.)

I loved the outcome. Crispy on the outside, warm and tofu-y on the inside. Andrea thought they were good "good and Asian-y." Make sure to season them with salt after frying them. Next time I make them, I think I'm going to make a dipping sauce.

Southwestern Chicken Soup

I was going to make a batch of Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate Biscotti this weekend. I got the recipe from Leite's Culinaria. The recipe can be found in the book "Great Cookies" by Carole Walter (Clarkson Potter, 2003). Even though her cookbook title could use some re-tooling, I thought the recipe was worth attempting. After you bake the biscotti, you finish them off by dipping one of their tips in a chocolate glaze. [Insert Homer Simpson drooling sound here.] However, Friday afternoon I found out my parents were going to stay with us Saturday night, so I thought I would focus on Saturday night dinner. The dinner was inspired by the lunch I had at Stauffers Cafe & Pie Shoppe (5600 S. 48th St, Lincoln, NE). I woke up with a sore throat Saturday morning and so I ordered a healing bowl of their homemade chicken noodle soup. The soup was perfect. It was so perfect in fact that Andrea braved infection and ate some of mine. We left wanting more. I didn't have time to make chicken noodle soup from scratch that afternoon because we had other things to do, but I did have a recipe I've made before that would fit the bill. It was an easy recipe because you essentially chop everything up, throw it in a crockpot and let it simmer all afternoon. The recipe is courtesy of Natalie Haughton.

Southwestern Chicken Soup

2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
1 (14.5 oz) can diced peeled tomatoes
1 (4 oz) can diced green chiles
1 (16 oz) package frozen corn kernels, partially thawed
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into thin strips
1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Seasoned Salt (I used Lawry's)

In a 5-quart electric slow cooker, mix together the broth, tomatoes with their liquid, green chiles, corn, red and green peppers, onion, chicken strips, and garlic pepper. Cover and cook on the high heat setting for 1 hour. Reduce the heat to the low setting and continue cooking 3 to 4 hours or until the chicken is cooked through and tender. Stir in the ground cumin and season with seasoned salt to taste. Serve immediately. (Bronson mod: I placed a bowl of chopped cilantro and a plate of lime wedges on the table and encouraged people to top off their soup with them prior to eating. I loves the cilantro.)

There was all this great fruit on sale at the grocery store. So, I got to practice my knife skills with citrus fruit, kiwi, and mangoes. Grapefruit supreme, anyone? All of this was prepared while listening to The Shanghai Restoration Project - Instrumentals. A good album to have on in the background. I tried pairing the soup with Hopluia. It was okay. Great beer, good soup. I didn't get any fireworks with the combination, however.

Welcome Back, Blogger.

It has been three months since my last post. Three months! I am a horrible blogger. No doubt about it. I suck. When my wife and I had a blog, I contributed about 25% of the time and that is even stretching it. I think it comes down to the fact that, while I have an opinion about things, I don't think they are important (or interesting) enough to share with others. As a result, I avoid blogging. (I also lack in comedic delivery. If you want funny. Check out my wife's blog. She's waaaaay funnier. )


I do like to write about food, however. My interest in food may keep my interest in blogging alive. I realized this when I sent an e-mail to two friends of mine about creating an e-venue to discuss our interest in cooking. I had them over to our house the previous weekend and we got to talking about the things we like too cook/bake. So, I sent them an e-mail. Here's what I wrote:

"I am proposing that we start an amateur food dialogue of sorts. All of us are interested in cooking in some way or the other, right? And, we cook/bake somewhat frequently. I am interested in what you do and when I find things food related, I want to share them with someone. And since, I am not good at blogging, I thought e-mail would be better. Since we have talked about food recently I have chosen you two as my partners in crime. With enough exchange, and perhaps more people, we might amass our own food knowledge base. I have a kagillion food blogs on my RSS reader and this recipe crossed my way. I might try it this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes. You two interested in sharing ideas?"

This led to a brief discussion about how busy life gets and how it makes us feel like we don't cook much. However, the both of them were interested. So, I sent out my first e-mail. I shared with them the list of food blogs I read. After writing and sending it, I thought to myself, "You could have easily posted this on your blog and avoid clogging up your friends' e-mail."

So, here I am.