Food: Pan-Fried Chicken Throw Down
The Challenge:
Cooking chicken is not my strong point, but I’ve been craving a crunchy, juicy cutlet lately, so I decided to tackle this obstacle and make pan-fried chicken my own. There are plenty of options for pan-frying, and chicken is on sale this week, so I decided to do a taste comparison – a self “throw down” if you will – with the basic components of most recipes:
Olive Oil v. Butter Bread Crumbs v. Flour Milk v. Egg
The Rules:
-I used the same pan the whole way through, I even cleaned out the pan and let it cool between each piece.
-I used chicken breasts that were (relatively) the same size.
-I seasoned each piece of chicken with salt and pepper, and cooked each piece separately.
-I used whole milk, unsalted butter, generic olive oil, brown organic eggs, and pre-seasoned italian bread crumbs.
-Each piece of chicken was dunked once on each side in either the milk or egg, then well-coated in either the flour or bread crumbs.
The Competitors:
1. Chicken with Egg, Flour, and Oil: Not crunchy. This type of coating is tasty in chicken dishes that are eventually baked, but it wasn’t what I was looking for in a pan-fry. Once I realized the flour wasn’t going to give me the crunch I wanted, I abandoned flour altogether. I’m that crazy.
2. Chicken with Milk, Bread Crumbs, and Oil: This was good, but I wasn’t crazy about the taste that the oil left on the chicken. Maybe I should have used a different type of oil, but I don’t have a bunch of different oils around, and I’m not going to start stocking up just for the occasional piece of chicken. My kitchen is too small for an oil collection, and what am I, a grocery store?
the winner!
3. Chicken with Egg, Bread Crumbs, and Butter: I immediately liked the butter better as a cooking vehicle, though I found I had to use quite a bit of it. However, I wasn’t sure about the egg- it made the bread crumbs taste a little too breakfast-like.
4. Chicken with Milk, Bread Crumbs, and Butter: I liked this from the start. The milk gave just enough moisture to the chicken, without adding unnecessary flavor. The butter sealed everything up and gave the bread crumbs a nice crunch.
from left to right: 1- 4, losers - winner
The Winner:
My personal favorite was #4: Chicken with Milk, Bread Crumbs, and Butter. And now that I’ve cooked all of this chicken, I could really use a steak.
Voila.
Food: Ravioli with Prosciutto and Butternut Squash
picture compliments of karen
Sometimes I buy ingredients with no real idea of how I’m going to use them. Sometimes they sit around for a good long time, like the Chermoula I brought back from London, or the drinking chocolate I just couldn’t resist. But these things have a long shelf-life, unlike the ruby red prosciutto bits I fell in love with a few days ago. I could have frozen them, but my freezer is already stuffed with things like nice bacon I bought on a whim, Sabella’s ravioli boxes, and exorbitantly expensive chocolate that I found on super sale. No, I needed to eat this prosciutto.
I poked around a bit online and found some recipes for Ravioli with Prosciutto and Butternut Squash- this would help me use up some Sabella’s (not that I need an excuse) and, hopefully, be a meal nice enough to serve a good friend coming to dinner. Below, the recipe I ended up creating.
1 1/2 cups prosciutto, chopped
2 cups butternut squash, chopped (to approx. same size as prosciutto)
1/2 stick unsalted butter
4 sage leaves, whole
however many ravioli you would like
however much grated parm you would like
Melt butter over medium high heat, add prosciutto and squash. Heat water for ravioli so they can cook while you are finishing your sauce. Saute squash and prosciutto, stirring occasionally, over medium heat until squash is tender but firm, about 10-15 minutes. Add sage leaves to squash mixture for the last 1-2 minutes of cooking. Drain ravioli, top with squash mixture and grated parm.
Voila.
Food: You Say Cassata, I Say Bomba (Cake)
from Modern Pastry
Just when I think I know everything about Italian pastry, along comes another delicious morsel. The above, a Cassata cake, is what I would describe as a cross between a rum cake and a cannoli. Yes, please.
A more precise definition, found on Wikipedia, categorizes Cassata as “a traditional sweet from Sicily, consisting of round sponge cake moistened with fruit juices or liqueur and layered with ricotta cheese, candied peel, and a chocolate or vanilla filling similar to cannoli cream. It is covered with a shell of marzipan, pink and green pastel colored icing.”
Purists believe that once the Cassata cake is covered in the almond paste icing, it is then considered a “Bomba” cake, but the internet yields differing opinions on the topic.
But hey, with all of the Cosa Nostra activity in the news lately, I don’t really care what this Sicilian dessert is called. I’m just excited to be eating it with a real fork, on “the outside,” if you know what I mean.
Fluid: Crocker and Starr Sauvignon Blanc (2009)
Don’t drink Crocker & Starr Sauvignon Blanc (2009) while eating Gruyere cheese. This pairing is a classic example of a delicious food ruining a delicious wine.
Last week I opened a bottle of C&S, sent to me by DoSB and lauded as one of the best he’d tasted during a recent wine tour. I was shocked to find it bitter and flat. I was pained- did I store it incorrectly? Did something happen in transit? Did I forget to wash the soap out of my wine glass after its last use?
Fortunately, I was drinking it with a friend, who immediately started raving. She knows a bit about wine, so it seemed something must be wrong on my end. After a little sleuthing, I realized the culprit was the freshly cut, earthy, pungent, and utterly wrong Gruyere I was snacking on.
Once I’d cleansed my palate with grapes and crackers, I was relieved to find the Crocker and Starr full of the fresh, citrusy notes I had been promised. I wouldn’t go quite as far as “peaches and cream,” but the aroma is a little beachy, and the pear shone through. Phew.
Frame: It’s My Birthday
It’s my birthday!
…and I like cake.
…a lot.
I mean really, your birthday is the one time of year you’re supposed to eat as much cake as you can…
…and usually, I do.
Food: Cherry Cheesecake Cookies
America’s Test Kitchen’s Cherry Cheesecake Cookies are the kind of cookies with dough that needs to be separated in half and chilled for two hours. I hate cookies like this. So this time, I cheated. I put one half in the freezer for 45 minutes, and everything still turned out ok. Good for me for finally being able to take some liberties with the baking process.
Aside from the lag time for the cooling, these cookies were easy but fun to make. The recipe was basically a sugar cookie with the addition of cream cheese, which was then rolled in graham cracker crumbs.
Then, you use a tablespoon to make an indentation across the top for filling. The recipe calls for canned cherry pie filling, which makes me want to gag. I substituted American Spoon Cherry Butter, which is tart and smooth and does not contain an elephant’s dose of red dye #40.
And I have to say, even after altering the cooling method and making an ingredient substitution, these cookies came out pretty good. Maybe my bad luck in baking is over?
Food: Peach Cranberry Jalapeno Granita
Granita is one of those things that, while I know must be easy, seems like an effort because of its frozen-ness. But being surrounded by January slush and snow has got me on an ice-y dessert kick, so I thought I’d give it a try – and it is, in fact, really easy. I ran across a recipe for a Lime Jalapeno Granita which I thought might be better with some tequila during the summer, but with a little tinkering I came up with this. Still very refreshing but a little more flavorful and less tart. Be careful with the jalapeno though, much more than suggested in this recipe will make it one of those cold desserts that sears your throat with heat on the way down. (Ahem, Christina’s Mexican Hot Chocolate Ice Cream.)
Peach Cranberry Jalapeno Granita
2 cups Peach Cranberry Juice Cocktail
1/3 cup sugar
2 big mint sprigs, whole
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and then chopped into 3-4 pieces (discard seeds)
3 tbps lime juice, plus zest from 1/2 lime
Heat juice, sugar, mint, and jalapeno to a boil. Take off heat and let stand 10 minutes. Strain through a mesh sieve into a glass dish (11 x 7). Discard solids. Stir in lime juice and lime zest. Put dish into freezer (flat) and stir once an hour until really frozen, about 3 hours. Scrap with a fork to make into granita.
Voila.
Feast: Pennsylvania Macaroni Company
"the strip"
It is literally impossible to duplicate the smell of a real Italian market without everything that lives inside. The spicy anise pizzelles mingling with the salty olive brine, the fruity notes of the Parmigiano Reggiano tapping against the earthy stench of cured meats hanging from the ceiling. You can’t bottle it, there’s no “Italian Market” candle from Glade, and the bracing smell hits you as soon as you walk in the door. But the sensory experience of Pennsylvania Macaroni Company (Penn Mac, to the locals) isn’t just about scent.
DoSB at Penn Mac
Penn Mac is a long-time resident of Pittsburgh’s Strip District- one of those eclectic ethnic neighborhoods filled with markets, restaurants, and street-wares. On the main drag, Penn Avenue, you can buy whatever your heart desires- gloves, dog bones, tea cups, baklava, sausage, doormats, or anything emblazoned with a Steelers, Pirates, or Penguins logo. Inside Penn Mac, your purchase options are even broader.
When you first enter the market you can take a left into the fresh foods room, a right into dry grocery, or mill about in the center with the spices. You have to make your decision quick as there is usually quite a crowd, and Penn Mac folk are pushy. I suggest speeding through the spice section and banging a quick left to grab a number for the cheese counter.
There’s no shortage of cheese at Penn Mac, much of it imported. Barrels of feta and mozzarella sit next to jugs of a wide variety of olives. Romano, provolone, taleggio, cacio cavallo, all available. True, Penn Mac is not the place for a fancy triple cream, and when I asked for burrata on my last visit I got a blank stare. But they have every variety of the Italian classics, at their highest quality. On my last trip the barrel-aged feta made an excellent lunch, sprinkled with oregano and drizzled with olive oil.
The meat counter is packed with favorites- sopresseta, mortadella, prosciutto, salami, salami, salami. Don’t leave without picking up at least two or three options.
And, they sell a little pasta.
just a small portion of the pasta section
The dry grocery section of Penn Mac is stuffed with pasta noodles- every brand, shape and size. There’s an eight foot section of olive oil, boxes of salt cod, and jarred tomato sauce for every taste. Vats of olive oil – pour your own- sit around the corner next to the fresh pasta counter. Multiple varieties of imported cookies, pannetone, panforte, and torrone are all represented.
And it wouldn’t be an Italian store without that flea market-y corner. Oddly placed plates, anyone?
Penn Mac is one of those places that makes you feel a little bit Italian, even if your ancestors didn’t come from Calabria (like mine). Stop in for the smells, the tastes, the people watching, or to buy a plate or two.
Food: Pan con Tomate
A lovely French woman recently taught me about a simple Spanish snack – Pan con Tomate (bread with tomato).
photo courtesy Saveur.com
It’s exactly what it sounds like: a thinly sliced baguette topped with tomato. But the trick is that you don’t use tomato slices – you use tomato pulp. You can get fancy and use a box grater on the meat of a fresh tomato (as in the above-linked Saveur recipe), or you could do as my French friend did – just cut a tomato in half and squeeze it onto your bread. For the full effect, start by rubbing the baguette (toasted or not) with a raw clove of garlic, and perhaps a swipe of good olive oil. Press your tomato half on the bread while you squeeze the juicy innards outward, and top with some sea salt.
This is one of those simple, perfect things in life. Voila.
Feast: Rino’s Place
Rino’s Place in East Boston is the kind of Italian restaurant that serves baskets of fresh, in-house bread with pre-packaged supermarket butter.
(The above comment is not meant to be a slight. Rather, it is how I knew the meal I was about to eat would be worth writing about.)
Now, I knew the experience would be worth documenting the minute my lunch partner and I arrived, put our name in for a table, and were told by the waitress to wait outside. True, the restaurant is small and it would have been awkward to stand right next to someone’s table, but it’s pretty frigid outside these days.
Eh, Rino’s doesn’t really care.
While outside, we got to soak up the local East Boston culture: smiling neighbors, whistling mailmen, pink vinyl-sided condos, and, best of all, the Rino’s Regulars. One woman, peroxide blonde ponytail peering out of her fur-trimmed metallic-gold jacket, was affronted by our placement in the outdoor waiting room. “That waitress is an asshole!” she croaked in a pack-a-day voice.
Later, accompanied by more colorful dialogue, it came out that our fur-hooded friend was in trouble with Rino’s- she had been getting impatient waiting for her own table, and kept harassing the waitress. Fur-Hood did have a point though, Rino’s was in no hurry to turn over – we waited to be seated a good fifteen minutes after 3 tables had been cleared. But I’m not really complaining, it gave us time to chat with more locals from the area, such as the 60 year old mobster who offered us his parking spot. This, after he caught us ogling his 20 year old minidress in stilettos, but before he gave us some lunch recommendations. He likes the lobster tails (of course he does), but the lobster ravioli were also on his list to try.
We were finally seated, directly under the signed poster of Guy Fieri, (who will be featuring Rino’s on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives), across from a woman in a full body brace, and near a man with a skull- topped silver-plated cane. We did not exactly blend in with the regular crowd (I’d left my accordian and acid washed jeans at home). But, we were more than willing to order like everyone else. Each table was heaped with multiple bowls of anything and everything. It was an Italian Thanksgiving at every sitting, at 1:30pm on a Tuesday in January.
Rino’s list of specials – at least as long as the formal menu- is handwritten on a plain piece of paper. Once you get used to the cursive scrawl, this list makes the actual menu an afterthought. There is no visible wine list, but being an Italian with roots in Revere I knew enough to just ask for a glass of Chianti, which the waitress brought, happily.
We started with fried calamari and a half order of burrata wrapped in prosciutto. Both could have been a meal in themselves, and both were dirt cheap. For quality and portion, the whole menu was way under market. I desperately hope Rino’s doesn’t adjust their pricing after Guy Fieri makes them famous.
The calamari was salty and greasy- but good greasy – and sprinkled with banana peppers. No fancy aioli here, just a slice of lemon and some fresh herbs on top. The batter was crunchy and the calamari was the correct texture- chewy but not over or under-done.
The burrata (a form of mozzarella with a creamy center) was also excellent. I find burrata more flavorful than regular mozz, which can often be bland and boring. Wrapped in prosciutto and sitting on top of a tomato, this was a perfectly embellished Caprese salad.
And then, there was the lobster ravioli. (Hey, I don’t argue when someone who is very clearly well-connected in East Boston’s, uh, food scene gives me a recommendation.) Massive in quantity, perfectly cooked, riddled with lobster meat (mostly tail, my favorite), the best part of the ravioli was the filling. Too often ravioli filling is boring, bland, and watery. This was creamy, tangy, and well-seasoned. The lobster pieces were substantial enough that one could really taste them, but small enough that they weren’t unwieldy to eat. And the sauce, by the way, was lovely. Creamy but not overly so, and it didn’t have the fishy taste that some lobster sauces can take on.
My partner’s veal marsala was also excellent. I don’t typically order marsala because I find the sauce too sweet for my taste, but this was slightly honeyed without being cloying. The veal was tender and only lightly coated, and the pasta was cooked to the perfect degree of chewy al dente.
We were too stuffed to order dessert, but I really wish we had, just to round everything out. We did make it to coffee, and I have to mention that once we were seated after our long initial wait, the service was very pleasant. We were absolutely not rushed. I like to think they accepted us as one of their own once I ordered wine with lunch – the waitress even tried to entice me with a second glass. And even though the place still seems to be a neighborhood secret, filled with 90% locals/regulars, we didn’t feel like we were being stared at or given sub-par food. The whole outing reminded me of a leisurely lunch in Florence, drinking wine and eating until it was time for a nap. It could only have been better if we were looking out onto Piazza Della Signoria.
I loved everything about my meal at Rino’s Place (especially the company) and I absolutely can not wait to go back. I doubt I’ll ever earn “regular” status, but it would be enough if, eventually, the waitress only makes us wait ten minutes when there are empty tables, instead of fifteen.
Food: Snow Day Steak Tips
steak tip steak
Recently, I made Beef Stroganoff from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home Cookbook. It was time-consuming and incredibly rich, the kind of thing you want to labor over during a cold, wintery day. With a big snow storm currently pummeling Boston, I got another urge for something slow cooked and fattening.
However, this is post-holiday time, and I’m trying to cut back on my excessive cream usage (at least, some of the time), so I turned once again to ATK, this time the Best of America’s Test Kitchen 2011. Their recipe for Steak Tips with Mushroom- Onion Gravy is hearty, much quicker/easier than any Thomas Keller recipe, and practically a salad when compared nutritionally to Beef Stroganoff.
One tip I found particularly useful in the recipe: buy a whole steak tip steak and cut it yourself. The meat (see above picture) was incredibly tender after marinating for just 45 minutes in a mixture of soy sauce and sugar.
Another useful tip in the recipe was to cover dried porcini’s in beef broth and microwave for 30 seconds to reconstitute. This was a big time saver- I can see myself using this technique whenever dried mushroom’s are called for in a recipe.
reconstituted porcini mushrooms
I will say that the mushroom-onion gravy was a tad watery, and I ended up adding 2 tablespoons of cream to thicken it/finish it off (hey, give me a break). I also think the amount of thyme should have been doubled, but other than that this was quick, satisfying, and rich-tasting without being heart attack-inducing. You could eat it on its own, but I used up some egg noodles I had hanging around.
Voila.
Food: Kitchen Clean Out – Chicken with Greek Yogurt
Some nights you just need to get rid of what you have in the kitchen. Some nights the concoction you come up with during this kitchen clean out is not really worth mentioning – I’m not proud of an infamous chickpea/wasabi/pasta night from my past. But I will say a recent experiment with chicken and greek yogurt turned out quite well. Here it is, in all of its dinner for one/kitchen clean out glory.
Chicken with Greek Yogurt
1 chicken cutlet
6 oz greek yogurt, plain and at room temperature
1/2 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
cheddar cheese, grated
salt and pepper
Season chicken with salt and pepper on both sides, then pan-sear on medium high heat in a swirl of olive oil, 30 seconds per side. Add chicken broth, lemon juice, onions, and garlic, cook until broth is almost absorbed into chicken- just a few minutes. Add tomatoes and parsley, cook until heated through.
Remove from heat, add greek yogurt. You don’t want the yogurt to separate, which is why it is important that it begin at room temperature and not be cooked in the pan. Top with grated cheese. Voila.
Meatless Monday: Cacio e Pepe
I’ve been feeling very wanderlust-y for Italy lately, so for Meatless Monday I’m recommending Cacio e Pepe (pasta with cheese and pepper), a popular Roman dish. This pasta embodies the elements I miss most about authentic Italian food- the ingredients are simple and few, and the dish doesn’t take skill so much as finesse, an innate sense about proportions and timing.
There are varying opinions on what fat to include in the recipe, if any. You can use butter, olive oil, cream, none of the above, all of the above. Some recipes use just Pecorino Romano cheese (the most traditional), some use both Pecorino and Parmigiano Reggiano. Personally, I’m not crazy about Romano, whereas Parmigiano is one of my top ten favorite foods.
I think the trick to Cacio e Pepe is whisking your sauce ingredients before adding them to the pasta. This gives you a smooth, even consistency, while just dumping everything in with the spaghetti and stirring can lead to lumps. Below, my recipe for an Italian favorite.
Cacio e Pepe
1 lb spaghetti
salt for pasta water
3 tbsp heavy cream
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cups finely grated (use a microplane) Parmigiano Reggiano
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups reserved pasta water
Liberally salt boiling water before adding pasta, cook for 8 minutes (or until al dente). Before draining pasta, reserve 1 1/2 cups of cooking liquid. Drain pasta and set aside.
Put 2 1/2 cups grated cheese into a bowl and slowly add 1 cup pasta water, a little at a time, whisking to combine. Add cream, olive oil, and pepper, whisk all ingredients together. Add sauce to pasta, stirring to coat. If sauce is too thick, add more pasta water to adjust consistency.
Top with extra grated cheese, if you are so inclined.
Voila.
Frame: A Word on Recipes
I’m starting to learn that a well-written recipe makes a huge difference in one’s finished product, and this understanding is (hopefully) going to make me a much better recipe writer. After my semi-disastrous attempts at recreating sweets from the Flour cookbook, I’ve spent a few days using America’s Test Kitchen Magazine- a more instructional publication – to help me. The brownies I made a few days ago turned out very well, and last night I tried their “Light Cheese Bread,” which, frankly, looked disgusting in batter form…
…but baked up nicely. The recipe called for a mixture of cayenne, dry mustard, and black pepper – a surprising but winning combination. This is one of those dense “quick” breads that would be good to serve with stew or chili, but it’s not something you’d make a sandwich with.
While I’ve used the America’s Test Kitchen publications before, I hadn’t used them for baking. I don’t need as much guidance with cooking – so “recipes” frequently become “suggestions”- but with baking, I clearly require some hand holding. What I like about ATK is that it gives you a little history on the recipe, talks about what works/doesn’t work, and cautions you against common mistakes.
I wonder if ATK does donuts…
yum!
Food: In My Blood
I changed my mind. I don’t quit. Maybe it was the taunts from everyone at work yesterday (“Seriously, you can’t even make cupcakes?”) or someone’s suggestion that I should stick to packaged cookie dough that did it, but I’m back on the baking train already. I thought about it, and I realized that there is something that I have seen baked- and even helped bake- so often, that I must be able to recreate it.
Brownies are in my blood.
I didn’t want to use my mom’s recipe- she has a fancy mixer and there’s no way I can make them as well as she does. But I found a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen – Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownies – and went to work.
I quickly realized that I do know a thing or two about brownies. I even have opinions about them, enough to tweak the recipe a little. I was not distracted by the batter as I normally am- I’ve tasted brownie batter a million times before. I looked at the suggested cooking time and knew instinctively that it was off. I had all of the right cooking appliances for the recipe, and all of the correct ingredients. I used the same Baker’s chocolate that my mom uses.
And you know what? These brownies are good.
only had to check for done-ness four times
(I know, you were totally expecting me to say that after all that, I still messed it up.)
I guess the trick is practice. If I make enough batches of doughnuts, maybe I’ll get really good at those, too.*
*not holding my breath.
The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread 
