Posts Tagged 'cheese'

Chicken Parmesan

Jay celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday and I took him to see the Body Worlds exhibit at the Science Centre. I’d never been and I was beyond impressed. After walking around for hours, looking at the posed remains of humans, we headed back home to eat. I made a very simple dinner of chicken Parmesan, rice, and salad.
The chicken Parmesan I made last night is a variation from the recipe found on Nervous Chef’s blog here.

Chicken Parmesan, serves 2-4 depending on how hungry you are
4 chicken thighs, I didn’t remove the skin or bones
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Frank’s Redhot
Pinch of salt and pepper

1 cup breadcrumbs
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
Pinch of salt and pepper

1 14 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 5 oz can tomato paste
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary
Water
Salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese

Mix together in a large bowl the milk, eggs, garlic powder, onion powder, Frank’s Redhot, salt, and pepper. Place the chicken pieces in the bowl, cover, and place in the fridge to soak for 4 to 6 hours.
Once you’re ready to start cooking, make the sauce by heating about a tablespoon of oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft. Stir in the garlic and cook another 30 seconds before adding the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir in the sugar, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper. Fill the empty can of tomato paste with water and add that water to the pot. Lower heat and simmer.
Preheat oven to 325F. In a shallow plate or bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper. Cover each chicken piece in the bread crumb mixture making sure each piece is well coated. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken until just brown on each side.
In a baking dish, large enough to fit the chicken pieces without overlapping, pour half the tomato sauce on the bottom. Place the chicken in the pan and pour the remainder of the sauce over top. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle grated mozzarella cheese and put back in the oven for about 6 to 8 minutes more.
I served this with fried rice with corn and a simple salad. Jay was very happy and he absolutely loved the tomato sauce.

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Coffee Chops and Blue Cheese Pasta

I have laid to rest my French Food At Home book, temporarily. After making Laura Calder recipes for a week I have discovered that some of her recipes are awesome and some are not so scrumptious. I cannot tell if the recipes were not wonderful due to my inability to follow directions correctly from time to time, or simply because the recipe just wasn’t meant to be. For the most part, though, I enjoyed the meals immensely. Another thing I learned is that I really hate blue cheese. I’ve known this for a very long time, ever since I was 12 years old and my sister’s god parents were in town and they brought us a small brick of blue cheese. I remember sniffing it and thinking it smelled like old cheesy socks. I remember tasting it and spitting it back out because I was convinced the blue bits were the remains of old cheesy socks. Since then, I have avoided blue cheese and the faintest scent of that cheese triggers my gag reflex.

So, it was a great surprise to Jay- who absolutely loves to eat blue cheese – that I made blue cheese pasta. I made it because I knew he would like it, and he did, and also because I thought that if I gave it a chance I would somehow instantly fall in love with it. This was not so. I ate about four bites of it before announcing, “Yep, I really do not like blue cheese. Please eat the rest.” Jay laughed. I’m so glad he found my suffering amusing. The pork chops were great though.

To make the pasta, cook fetuccini noodles how you like them and while they’re cooking make the blue cheese sauce. Melt 250g of blue cheese and then whisk in half a cup of cream. Once the noodles are ready, drain them, return to pot, and coat them with the sauce and some fresh ground pepper.

For the pork chops, season two chops with salt, pepper and sugar on both sides. Heat a bit of olive oil and butter and once that’s hot fry the chops for about 10 minutes or until they are nice and caramelized. While that’s happening, brew about a quarter cup of strong black coffee. Once the pork chops are done, set them on a plate and keep warm. Pour the coffee in the pan and shake to deglaze. Let it boil down to a thin syrup, about 1 or 2 minutes then pour over the pork chops.

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Blue Cheese Pasta

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Coffee Pork Chops

Tuna Cheese Melt

It’s a gloomy, rainy day today, perfect for lounging in pjs and eating comforting comfort food. It was lunch time and I didn’t feel like making a full meal for myself. I was feeling a bit lazy and I ALMOST caved in to a salty, carb-filled packet of instant noodles. But I managed to contain myself and I brought out the left over rice and vegetables from last night along with a can of tuna and some egg whites. I mixed it all up with a few squirts of Sriracha sauce and I topped it with a slice of Kraft cheese (hey! it’s better than a packet of noodles!) and I threw it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350F.

Result: Delicious comfort food :)


Yes, you can tell I was already shovelling food in my mouth when I remembered I had to take a picture.