Three things I love:
Creative disturbances, Christmas lights, and metal. Does it get any better than this?? I wish I had thought of it myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFjI7gT1FvI
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Italian take on Chicken Cordon Bleu
Today's efforts were on chicken stuffing. Grandpa's still in the hospital, so I cooked up a family pack of chicken breasts, stuffed with two different variations on the Cordon Bleu recipe. My mum said she doesn't really like the traditional cordon bleu, so the first batch was stuffed with bacon and swiss. I havent tried this one yet, because I made them up to give to my mum and grandma again, so we will hear the verdict soon enough. The second batch was awesome and I would totally do it again, it was stuffed with proscuitto and fontina cheese, two of my all-time favorites so it was guaranteed to please at least me. It may sound selfish, but I kind of want to keep this batch for myself...
So here's the cooking instructions. The process is a bit time-consuming, so if you're going to bother doing it you might as well make a whole batch of them and keep them in the freezer to cook for quick dinners later on.
The trick to doing this is pounding the chicken breasts thin enough that they will roll up well and cover up the cheese stuffing, otherwise when you put them in the pan the cheese all oozes out the sides and you have none left inside when you go to eat it, which sucks.
So what I did was place the breasts between two sheets of wax paper while I beat them up. Butchers wrap would work even better, but you cant see through it so... there's pros and cons. Anyway, so you start out by butterflying the breast, which in case you arent familiar with the term means you cut the breast open on the flat side, kind of like opening a book. To pound it out, use the flat side of the mallet, rather than the dimpled side (which is for tenderizing), otherwise your breast winds up full of holes and no-one needs a breast full of holes, know what I'm sayin'.
When you've got all your flat slabs of chicken, place 1 1/2 slices of proscuitto on the chicken and lay a couple of slices of fontina cheese on top of the ham. Then you roll it up from the short side into a nice fat little mound. Try to make sure all the stuffing is inside. If its not, its not a big deal, but its just in everyone's best interest not to lose your stuffing.
Once you've got all the breasts stuffed, you want to bread them. I used the two-bowl method, one with a mix of egg and water, and the other a mix of breadcrumbs, herbs, and I added some shake-n-bake just for laughs. Actually that was because I was kind of short on bread. But anyway, you take a rolled up breast and dip it in the egg mix, make sure all exposed parts of the chicken are dipped, and then roll it in the bread crumbs. Place to the side and repeat with all remaining breasts. Then, because I like an extra crispy breading I put them all in for a second wash in the egg and crumb mixes.
To cook, place a couple of teaspoons of light cooking oil in a frying pan, pre-heat the pan to a medium heat, and lightly brown them. When you have them all browned in the pan, place the lot of them on a tray and finish them in the oven on 360 for about 15 minutes. Your kitchen will likely be a complete disaster by this point.
If you want to freeze these and heat up later, make sure to thaw completely before reheating or they will be cold in the middle or get overcooked. You can either heat them up again in the oven for like 7 or 8 minutes, or just microwave them for 1.5 minutes.
So here's the cooking instructions. The process is a bit time-consuming, so if you're going to bother doing it you might as well make a whole batch of them and keep them in the freezer to cook for quick dinners later on.
The trick to doing this is pounding the chicken breasts thin enough that they will roll up well and cover up the cheese stuffing, otherwise when you put them in the pan the cheese all oozes out the sides and you have none left inside when you go to eat it, which sucks.
So what I did was place the breasts between two sheets of wax paper while I beat them up. Butchers wrap would work even better, but you cant see through it so... there's pros and cons. Anyway, so you start out by butterflying the breast, which in case you arent familiar with the term means you cut the breast open on the flat side, kind of like opening a book. To pound it out, use the flat side of the mallet, rather than the dimpled side (which is for tenderizing), otherwise your breast winds up full of holes and no-one needs a breast full of holes, know what I'm sayin'.
When you've got all your flat slabs of chicken, place 1 1/2 slices of proscuitto on the chicken and lay a couple of slices of fontina cheese on top of the ham. Then you roll it up from the short side into a nice fat little mound. Try to make sure all the stuffing is inside. If its not, its not a big deal, but its just in everyone's best interest not to lose your stuffing.
Once you've got all the breasts stuffed, you want to bread them. I used the two-bowl method, one with a mix of egg and water, and the other a mix of breadcrumbs, herbs, and I added some shake-n-bake just for laughs. Actually that was because I was kind of short on bread. But anyway, you take a rolled up breast and dip it in the egg mix, make sure all exposed parts of the chicken are dipped, and then roll it in the bread crumbs. Place to the side and repeat with all remaining breasts. Then, because I like an extra crispy breading I put them all in for a second wash in the egg and crumb mixes.
To cook, place a couple of teaspoons of light cooking oil in a frying pan, pre-heat the pan to a medium heat, and lightly brown them. When you have them all browned in the pan, place the lot of them on a tray and finish them in the oven on 360 for about 15 minutes. Your kitchen will likely be a complete disaster by this point.
If you want to freeze these and heat up later, make sure to thaw completely before reheating or they will be cold in the middle or get overcooked. You can either heat them up again in the oven for like 7 or 8 minutes, or just microwave them for 1.5 minutes.
A new take on Shepherds Pie
OK so my grandpa went into the hospital for an operation, and while he was in there I figured I'd cook up some pre-made dinners for my mom and grandma so they didn't have to worry about cooking during that stressful time. Here is a recap of my first-ever attempt at Shepherds Pie.
I was never really a fan of it growing up, but my mom loved it, so whats a rebellious kid like me to do other than change the recipe. They seemed to like it, in spite of my unconventional approach.
Cooking instructions:
I started by frying up 1 lb of good extra lean ground beef. When it was almost cooked through, i added 1 small yellow (red would be OK too) onion, cut into small dice about 1/4", and 3 big cloves of garlic minced coarsely. At the end, I mixed in 1 tbsp of chili powder.
While that was cooking, I boiled up about 8 red potatoes, with the skins left on, cut in half to cook a bit faster. When they were soft all through, I mashed them up (after draining the water of course, silly) with about 1/2 a cup of sour cream, a tablespoon of butter, and three triangles of that Laughing Cow cheese that comes in the foil wrap, garlic-herb flavour. I added in about 2 tbsp worth of minced up fresh rosemary and some salt and fresh ground pepper.
When that was finished, i put the beef mix into a baking pan, dumped on top a couple of cans of mixed vegetables (more on this later), and then spooned the potato mix evenly on top of it all, and put it in the oven to bake. It took about 1/2 an hour to get browned up a bit on the top, with the oven set to 375.
Results:
If I had it to do again I would, change two things - use different vegetables, and add more cheese. I wanted the potatoes to be cheesy, and they were, but not enough. I'd probably go with four triangles next time.
The canned veggies werent bad, but the beans came out overcooked, so next time I might just go with canned carrots or corn, or maybe just use fresh carrots instead.
Anyway, at the end of the day its a good meal to have in the fridge for lunches to take to work.
I was never really a fan of it growing up, but my mom loved it, so whats a rebellious kid like me to do other than change the recipe. They seemed to like it, in spite of my unconventional approach.
Cooking instructions:
I started by frying up 1 lb of good extra lean ground beef. When it was almost cooked through, i added 1 small yellow (red would be OK too) onion, cut into small dice about 1/4", and 3 big cloves of garlic minced coarsely. At the end, I mixed in 1 tbsp of chili powder.
While that was cooking, I boiled up about 8 red potatoes, with the skins left on, cut in half to cook a bit faster. When they were soft all through, I mashed them up (after draining the water of course, silly) with about 1/2 a cup of sour cream, a tablespoon of butter, and three triangles of that Laughing Cow cheese that comes in the foil wrap, garlic-herb flavour. I added in about 2 tbsp worth of minced up fresh rosemary and some salt and fresh ground pepper.
When that was finished, i put the beef mix into a baking pan, dumped on top a couple of cans of mixed vegetables (more on this later), and then spooned the potato mix evenly on top of it all, and put it in the oven to bake. It took about 1/2 an hour to get browned up a bit on the top, with the oven set to 375.
Results:
If I had it to do again I would, change two things - use different vegetables, and add more cheese. I wanted the potatoes to be cheesy, and they were, but not enough. I'd probably go with four triangles next time.
The canned veggies werent bad, but the beans came out overcooked, so next time I might just go with canned carrots or corn, or maybe just use fresh carrots instead.
Anyway, at the end of the day its a good meal to have in the fridge for lunches to take to work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)