Wednesday, November 16, 2011

First butter sauce experiment







So me and my wife were watching food network and saw this dish and I just had to try it. Looked a little italian a little Mediterranean and well delicious. So ill tell you how we made it and you can judge for yourself it is delicious or not.

First I started off in a pan putting salt and pepper and flour. mixed that together. Then I took my chicken breast and dredged them into the flour until every surface was covered.

In a large skillet I put about 4 tablespoons of butter. And at medium heat placed the chicken in the pan. See if done this type of cooking before with the chicken when I made my Chicken Cordon Bleu. Having that flour on the outside just makes that little bit of crunch that strays away from the normal soft outer "shell" of a chicken breast. And not to mention the flavor is just amazing.

Brown the chicken breast on both sides. About 5-6 min on each side. Depending on how
thick your chicken breast are. I would suggest longer. Nothing sucks more than getting your entire plate looking beautiful with everyone on it and then you cut into your chicken and its nice and pink in the middle. Move to a platter or plate.

Im still working on learning a "butter" sauce. Got some tips and ill share them with you. Using the same pan add another Tbsp of butter if needed or more. try and "scrape" up all the drippings from your chicken to incorporate into your butter sauce. Once it starts to melt remove your pan from the heat and in a bobbling movement swirl the butter back and forth in your pan and whisk. (In my video I did swirl the butter but later found that using the whisk will help out better. Just don't over whisk) Then what I did was put the pan back on the heat at a lower heat and add your lemon zest, lemon juice, olives, capers and tomatoes. Heat them up enough. Then take it off the heat and engulf your chicken in the amazing butter sauce.

We found that having a nice fresh loaf of bread from the deli works wonders for sponging up the butter sauce and veggies.

ENJOY!!!


Here are the Ingredients for this amazing dish :


  • 3 boneless skinless chicken breast
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp lemon and pepper seasoning
  • salt & pepper
  • 3-4 tbsp butter or margarine
  • 1-2 tsp capers
  • 1 - 1/2 cups cherrie tomatos
  • 1/4 - 1/2 cup kalamata olives
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • 1/2 lemon (lemon juice)


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Steak and potatoes

I love associating potatoes with the usual steak meal. My wife is not a fan of mashed potatoes unless they're chunky. So i've tried to experiment with other ways to make them.

My normal way to make my potatoes are to get those wonderful Red Potatoes and cut them into 2x2 inch squares and fry them in some olive oil. after they get a lil brown ill add butter salt pepper cayenne and parsley and simmer them until there just cooked perfectly.

But that got old after awhile so I tried to roast the potatoes. I would use the same idea but just larger chunks of potato and i would mix all of that in a bowl with fresh chopped garlic. I'd then toss that in the oven for 20-30 min until there cooked. I learned the hard way the first time i made them when it comes to evenly cooking them in the oven. YOU HAVE TO FLIP THEM CONSTANTLY. The first time I made them they burnt to the bottom of the pan. So the second time I made them the smarter way and they turned out great.

Now the steak. I will ONLY buy steak when its on sale due to the ridiculous amount they want to charge for a piece of meat. My favorite is the Rib Eye. This week though, New York Strip was on sale.

Usually ill put some spices or some "steak" marinade over night. This time i just went the easy route. Salt  and pepper right out of the wrapper. Literally that easy. But then i had an idea. Ive had these "steak butters" at restaurants and they were really good. I thought ill make my own.

So i took some regular butter and mixed fresh parsley, salt, pepper and just a little garlic powder and mixed it all together.

So while down stairs at the community grill sweating in the nice hot summer heat...(wait..its october). I tossed the steaks on the gas grill.

Got great grill marks on both sides of the steaks and then I added some healthy spoon fulls of the steak butter. Closed the grill and prayed it would work.

I opened the grill and to my amazement there layed the most juicest steak i have ever created. I flipped it over and then again causing a nice flame to shoot up into the steak. My way of steak making has been changed forever. When I got upstairs and pulled out the roasted red potatoes and finished my pasta roni parmesan(easy and quick). I plated.





I put a small amount more of the steak butter on the steak and added a decent amount to the potatoes. When i cut into that perfectly cooked medium rare steak and could just see the juices glimmer from the chandelier over the dining table, i knew id done well. The steak was so juicy and just cooked so well with that nice buttery taste in every bite.

Like i said before I would have loved to use a Rib Eye. But with my Steak butter experiment I had to use a less fatty steak and if you know anything about Rib Eye, it is magically marbled with fat. So these New York strips only had that sliver of fat on the one side of the steak. I could have trimmed it down but then why would I do a nonsense thing like that??

All in all for now on if im cooking a steak I will use my steak butter. Its that amazing.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Chicken Cordon Bleu


This is our take on this classic dish!
  • 3-4 chicken breast (butterflied)
  • 2-3 cups flower
  • 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 lb proscuitto
  • Fresh Mozzarella (to your liking)
  • Butter
  • 4 pints heavy cream (Not whipping cream)
  • 1 cup white wine
  • Salt & Pepper

Start off by taking your chicken breast and from the side of the breast make a cut into the chicken to create a pocket for your stuffings. Try not to cut all the way through or into the bottom creating open pockets for the stuffing to escape.

Take your flour, cayenne pepper, Salt and pepper and place it into a dish or pan. Mix together

Take your proscuitto and fresh mozzarella and stuff it into the pockets you created in your chicken. After stuffing seal the pocket with toothpicks. Try and make sure there are no openings. (The stuffing may fall out but it will add to the sauce so dont worry too much)

Heat up a skillet at medium heat and add 4-6 tablespoons of butter to the skillet. Melt the butter.


Take your chicken breast stuffed with the proscuitto and mozzarella and place it in the flour mixture and coat the entire breast.

Place the breast in the skillet. Then cover for 5-7 min.


Once brown on the bottom flip your chicken and again cover and cook for another 5-7 min or until golden brown.



Remove the chicken and place in a dish later for the oven.

(do not clean the skillet, leave all the droppings in the pan)

Take your cup of white wine and poor into the pan. Take a spatula and mix the wine so you get up all the droppings and so forth from the chicken. You will be using the wine to deglaze the pan of all the great flavors.

Once the plan is deglazed. Take your 4oz of heavy cream and pour it into the pan. Add salt and pepper to your liking.

Bring sauce to boil. Then turn heat down and let simmer.  Sauce will thicken (if you want it thicker add small dashes of flour to the sauce)

You have two options.
  1. Take chicken and place back into pan while sauce thickens. Cover and cook for another 5-7 min.
  2. Once sauce has thickened. Pour over chicken in oven safe dish and place in oven at 375 degrees for 10-12 min



Serve, and Enjoy!



Sunday, May 22, 2011

Gorgonzola Stuffed Meatballs with Roasted Red Potatoes!

Meatballs:
  • 3 1/2 pound ground beef
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
  • 1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
  • 2 handfuls grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
  • 2 handfuls plain bread crumbs
  • 3 tablespoons sliced or finely chopped sage leaves
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 8 ounces Gorgonzola

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place meat in a mixing bowl and season with salt, pepper, add in garlic, eggs, cheese, bread crumbs and sage. 
Mix meat, roll into 8 large balls and arrange in a baking dish. Coat balls with 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil. Using the end of a wooden spoon, make an indentation half way into each ball and fill the cavity with some gorgonzola



 Bake until golden and cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes.

Roasted Red Potatoes
  • 3 pounds small red or white potatoes
  • 1/4 cup good olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves)
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut the potatoes in half or quarters and place in a bowl with the olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic; toss until the potatoes are well coated. Transfer the potatoes to a pan and spread out. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until browned. Flip twice during cooking in order to ensure even browning.
Remove the potatoes from the oven, toss with parsley or desired seasoning season to taste, and serve hot.