Easy Chicken Parmigiana

I'm on vacation right now with my brother and sister-in-law with their kids in Park City, Utah.  They rented a lovely condo and it's stocked pretty well with cooking gadgets.  First, the stove is a Viking 30" stove!  I've never used one before and it is definitely a treat.  The amount of heat it puts out is pretty impressive.  The one thing that my wife commented on was that the stove wasn't very user friendly.  It didn't have clocks or timers or anything else electronic.  Just pretty much a stove to cook.

Other gadgets in the house was a Cuisinart Mini Mate Chopper, the entire Henckels Knife Set, a wok, tongs, and the classic toaster oven.  (Believe it or not, no microwave).

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4 large chicken breasts

4 pieces of toast

4 cloves of garlic, diced

16 oz. mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Jar of tomato sauce

Various spices (oregano, basil, thyme)

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 tbs olive oil.

6 tbs vegetable oil.

Start by toasting the bread in the toast oven. While it's toasting, saute the garlic in the olive oil. Remove the toast and crumble it into the pan with the garlic. Add the various spices. (We're making breadcrumbs here).  Once that's done, grind it fine using the CuisinartChopper.  Pour the bread crumbs into a bowl

For the chicken breasts, if they're pretty thick as mine were, I sliced all of them in half.  Get a bowl and mix the eggs and milk together. 

Dip the chicken into the egg/milk mixture, then coat each chicken breast in the breadcrumb mixture.  If this house had some large sandwich bags, we could have done a shake 'n bake (which makes cleaning up a lot easier), but as mentioned, this is a rental.

I put the chicken into the refridgerator for an hour to let the breadcrumbs stick and settle onto the chicken.  If you omit this step, you usually end up with a lot of breadcrumbs in the pan.

 Heat up the vegetable oil in a frying pan and pan fry the chicken breasts on both sides (you do not want to cook them all the way through).  You can use olive oil to be more health conscious, but I'm on vacation and vegetable oil usually imparts a heavier taste.

Take a cookie sheet and spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce on it.  Add the chicken then cover each piece with sauce.  Let it cook for about 10 minutes on 350.  Remove the tray from the oven, then cover it with the cheese.  Put it back into the oven for another 5 minutes to let the cheese melt.  Remove and serve hot.  Pasta, french bread, and a green salad make excellent sides.

Give me back that fish taco me that fish.

What a wonderful Spring day in NY! Today I spent most of the day spring cleaning and ended up with a total of 8 heaping garbage bags to toss. I'm loving this weather and this weather means BBQ season has started! Yaaaay!

In the midst of cleaning out my pantry I have a box of hard corn tacos that need to be used so as an ode to the warm weather and with the need to use my tacos tonight is gonna be Fish Taco night.

What you'll need:
Fish Tacos:
Store bought tacos
Tilapia
1 Tbl Ancho Chile
1/4 cup Canola/ Vegetable Oil
1 Lime Juiced
1 Jalapeno Minced
1/2 cup of Chopped Fresh Cilantro
SnP to taste

Mango Salsa:
1 Mango diced
1 small red onion diced
1 Jalapeno minced
1 Tomato Diced with out rib or center seeds
1 Ripe Avocado diced
1/2 Cup of choped Cilantro
SnP to taste
1 Small Cucumber diced
2 small limes juiced.

Hardware:
Cast iron skillet
Mixing bowl
Spatula
Your favorite chefs knife.

Get the knife skills ready! Kick off the marinade first by mixing the chile, oil, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice and SnP to taste. Mix and pour over your fish for 15 min 20 minutes.

Onto the salsa mix the cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado, lime juice, onion, cilantro, mango, and SnP taste and set aside in the refridgerator.

Get an Cast Iron skillet on high heat for 5 minutes with a drizzle of canola oil. Once the oil begins to smoke lay the fish on the grill for about 2 mins on each side.

Remove the fish and flake with a fork and drizzle with lime juice. Drain excess liquid from the salsa and combine tacos to make a lip smacking Fish Taco. I highly recommend Patron Silver or a Margerita as a fine chaser. Enjoy!

Mushroom Risotto

So I needed something to cook, so I grabbed an issue of Fine Cooking and came across a 'how to make risotto' dish.  I've never cooked it before, but it seemed pretty straight forward.  First the ingredients:

For those that don't realize, Risotto is just a form of rice.  What makes the rice different is that amount of starch content that is in it.  Also, the way you slow cook it releases the starch differently then say normal white rice which gives it their unique texture.

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• 1 lb. Arborio rice (or any other italien rice)
• 6 cups chicken stock (bought or homemade)
• 8 tbs. butter
• 1/2 cup dry white wine.
• 1 medium onion, finely diced.
• 2 cups grated parmesean cheese
• 12 oz. pack mushrooms

Hardware:

• Anolon Advanced 14-Inch Stir Fry with Helper Handle
• Black & Decker HC306 1-1/2-Cup One-Touch Electric Chopper
• Global 8-Inch 20cm Cook's Knife
• Pyrex Prepware 2-Cup Measuring Cup, Clear with Red Measurements
• Progressive International 9 Inch Silicone Gripper Tongs, Red

Start by cutting up the mushrooms into quarters and sauteeing them in 2 tbs. butter for about 5 minutes. Once that is done, remove the mushrooms and set them aside.

  In the same pan, heat up another 2 tbs of butter and add the diced onion.  Normally for such a small task I wouldn't have taken out the mini-chopper, but anytime anything says 'diced', it makes life so much easier.  Also no tears from chopping onions! 

After the onions are a nice translucent color, add the Risotto and stir for about 2 minutes. 

Our neighbor had brought over a bottle of white wine, so I conveniently used it.  A pretty good chardonnay as well.  Pour in 1/2 cup of the white wine and let it soak in for about 30 seconds. 

Next add the chicken broth and make sure all the rice is covered.  I was a bit worried at first since the pan I used might have been a big too big, but it worked out fine.  Lower the heat until you get a nice simmer.  Stir the rice every 2 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. 

Add the cheese and mushrooms as well as the remaing broth and simmer until you get your desired consistency of how you like your Risotto.  Some like it very gummy or some like it wet.   Of course I love to have it in between.  Salt and Pepper to taste and server immediately in bowls.  Extra cheese on the side is good for those who want it more cheesy (i.e. my 4 and 6 year old daughters!)

Aint nothing like a sharp knife

Ain't nothing like a sharp Chef's  knife in your hand. Don't call me a a psycho killer call me a psycho griller. They say a perfect knife should be an extension of the cooks body. It's not only a slicer, dicer, chopper, bone crusher, and de-boner (yep I said DE-BONER) its can also be a wonderful piece of art and something you can brag about.

The main countries that produce some of the most esteemed knifes have traditionally been German and Japanese. German knives such as Wustof and Henckels tend to be bold, heavy, traditional High Carbon Steel knives that can do everything from skin a peach to cutting through the spine of a chicken. Japanese knives tend to be lighter in feel and are made with a Damascus steel created by layering metal after metal and hammering it to create waves in your blade. This creates less drag when slicing allowing food such as potatoes to slide off of the knife as you cut it.The Japanese also have a knife culture deep in tradition. The city of Seki, Japan first made it's way on the map as the nations premiere samurai sword producer. That's right Samurais swords, how sick is that? Today's modern day cousin of the samerai sword is the knives of Seki, Japan.

I like both but my very first knife was a German Wüsthof Classic 5-Inch Hollow Ground Santoku Knife. It is still one of my favorites but my day to day as of late is my Ken Onion by Shun 8-Inch Chef's Knife. I find that the German knife is a great overall knife and great for crushing bones if needed but the Japanese knives are so much lighter that you can cut for quite a while before tiring out.

Knives are traditionally made from Stainless steel which is a mixture of iron and carbon with the premium lines containing Higher amount of carbon. What that does it create a harder knife that can hold its edge for longer without being brittle.

Another material knives are made of later are Ceramic. Kyocera makes one and I ended up with the Kyocera 5-1/2-Inch Santoku Knife and Y Peeler Set, Pink. It's a great knife, super light and one of the sharpest by far. It maintains its edge for much longer than any of the traditional steel knifes and is substantially lighter. It's drawbacks are its prone to chipping and shattering when contacting a hard surface, you will need a ceramic honer instead of your nornal steel, it has a plastic hand feel more toy like than tool like. I recommend ceramics for paring knives and vegetable preparation but not for meat chops.

Another intresting thing you'll find about knifes are that each culture has its own unique shape.

Western/European knives tend to be the traditional Dagger shape which makes it versatile with a narrow point for peeling and a thick heel for crushing.














Asian Chef's knives tend to be the Sanktoku which means "three virtues." The idea is that it has the ability to be used on Fish, Vegetables and Meats. They have the traditional Sheep's foot shape and tend to have a straighter edge allowing you chop in more of an up / down motions with minimum slice forward/back rocking.














A traditional Chinese "Chef's" knive is a cleaver. Now unlike the German cleaver used almost exlusively to cut through bones and butchering. Chinese cleaver are much lighter and sharper used for cutting, scooping ingrediants, smashing with flat side of blade, tenderizing with spine of blade, and mortar and pestling with the handle of the blade. Personally this is on my xmas gift list for 2010. =)

Either weapon you choose, you have to go into a kitchen store and hold the knife in your hand. The one that feels the best as you slice and dice is the one with your name on it. Happy cutting.

My Chef Knife recommendations:
Japanese















German Style

Pasta with spicy shrimp and tomatoes

I randomly pulled out a fine cooking magazine to make something for dinner with the ingredients in mind of 'pasta', as given by my four year old when asked what she wanted to eat.  This dish was easy to make and no fancy gadgets used!

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• 1 lb. shrimp (deveined and tail removed)
• 4 cups cherry tomatoes
• 1 lb. pasta (I used Angel hair)
• Artisinal bread (i.e. fancy bread) for breadcrumbs. (I bought a loaf of sourdough)
• 2 shallots diced
• 1 tbs.  parsley
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp cayenne powder
• 5 tbs. olive oil.
• s&p to taste.

Hardware

• Anolon Wok
• Global 8-Inch 20cm Cook's Knife
• Large pot to boil the pasta
• Silicone Gripper Tongs, Red
• Mixing Bowls, Set of 3
• Black & Decker HC306 1-1/2-Cup One-Touch Electric Chopper

Start by boiling water in the large pot for the pasta. While that is on the stove, prepare the shrimp.

Add the 2 tbs. of olive oil,shrimp, cayenne powder, red pepper flakes, parsley and s&p.  Mix well together making sure everything gets coated. 

Shred the bread into mini pieces (I used the mini chopper for this).  Add the 2 tbs. of olive oil into the wok and let it get hot.  Add the bread and stir.  (you're making bread crumbs here).  Add a little s&p for taste.  This should be about 3 minutes.  When done, remove and put aside in another bowl.  Hopefully at this time, the water should be boiling, so add the pasta.

Now for the tedious part, take all your tomatoes and cut them in half.  I haven't found a device that will save you from individually cutting every tomatoe, but that's what knife skills are for.  Put them aside.  When you're done, peel and dice the shallots (go food chooper) and add the remaining olive oil (that's 1tbs. of oil for those not counting) to the wok and saute the shallots until they are a medium brown.

After, add the shrimp mixture and tomatoes into the wok with the shallots and stir for about 3 minutes. 

Drain the pasta from the water (should be a little bit al-dente) then add into the wok.  Save around 2 cups of the pasta water.  The pasta may be a little dry when mixed in with the shrimp.  Slowly add the pasta water into the wok to keep everything moist.  Stir-fry this for about 2-3 more minutes making sure to fold in all the ingredients into the pasta.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add more cayene powder if you want it more spicy.

Put the pasta into individual bowls and sprinkle on the breadcrumbs.  The breadcrumbs added texture which definitely made this dish a lot more interesting!

*cooks note, my daughter had pasta with butter and parmesan cheese.