One Upping Chicken Parmesan

               Okay, so I posted a recipe for Chicken Parmesan Alfredo, and then when I went to make it I did exactly what I usually do: I upped it.  I’m seldom satisfied with just going with a recipe the way it is.  In fact that is something my family has always complained about.  I would make something, they would love it, and I could never make it again because I was winging it.  In other words, they would ask me to make it again, and I couldn’t because I didn’t actually know what I did.  I’m sort of like a mad scientist in the kitchen, throwing some of this, a little of that, a pinch of that…oh wait, what was that?  Oh well, smelled right.  It’s sort of like the explorer who doesn’t follow the map but meanders randomly and miraculously winds up at his desired destination.  Or, lo and behold, somewhere even better.  If you have a basic understanding of what foods will go well together, what herbs meld well, what spices compliment one another, you more often than not will succeed.  That’s what happened last night.  Two tastes that go really well together are goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.  Tangy and sweet, they just pop.  It is a great blend and is one of the main tastes in one of our favorite dishes from one of our favorite restaurants.  Add to that a lemon-wine sauce thickened with butter, seasoned with garlic and shallots….my stomach just rumbled in response to the written word!

               So last night, as I was preparing the chicken, I thought of stuffing it with some cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.  So after I had prepared the breading, I pounded out the chicken breasts to about ¼” thickness.  I took  about 1 ½ Tbls. Sun-dried tomatoes per breast and combined it with equal amount of Italian shredded cheese mixture.  Any type will do, some come seasoned even.  I added about 1 oz. crumbled goat cheese to each breast, folded it over tightly then dipped it in the egg, then coated it in the breading.  Into the baking dish and into the oven for 40 minutes.  You can still use the Alfredo sauce if you wish, but I like the following sauce much better:

·        2 Tbls. Butter

·        2 Tbls. minced garlic

·        2 Tbls. minced shallots

·        ½ Cup dry white wine

·        1/3 Cup lemon juice

·        1 stick COLD butter, sliced

·        1 Cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

·        1/3 Cup chopped fresh basil

·        Salt and pepper/to taste

Saute garlic and shallots in butter over medium heat until tender.  Stir wine and lemon juice into skillet, increasing heat from medium to med-high; simmer to reduce by half.  Reduce heat to low and stir in cold butter one pat at a time until melted.  Stir in tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper.  Remove from heat.  Serve over Chicken.  Crumble extra goat cheese over chicken for added flavor and punch!  Yummy!!

Chopped, what?

Okay, so a few years ago, my daughter introduced me to this show on the Food Network about these professional chefs who compete for $10,000 in four rounds of cooking with unknown ingredients in these really cool looking picnic baskets, which I would go on the show just to try to escape out the backdoor with.  Several of the ingredients are pretty snobby sounding things which most of us home-cooks have probably never heard of, then they throw in something random which is there to throw the highbrow chef off his game.  The irony is that the ‘random’ ingredient, which is something like grocery store cereal, or corn nuts, or chocolate cookies, is the part that I would be the most comfortable with and would not despair over. I recall the one show where the chef referred to Ramen noodles as ‘stoner-food.’  And more than one chef has stated that they hate anything from a can.  It is the fish with the head on that needed to be filleted, the vegetable I don’t recognize, or some strange Asian wine that would send me into the panic zone.  I think my sister-in-law Cheri needs to be collecting royalties from the network for this program since in my opinion they stole the idea from her.  She’s been living this programming idea out for years.  Our mother-in-law tells of the times that she would come to her house and offer to cook dinner.  Carrol would say, “Cheri, there’s nothing in my kitchen to cook, but you are welcome to see if you can find something.”  And Cheri would rummage through the cupboards and find random, mismatched ingredients and create a meal.  Raising 11 children she has continued the tradition of creating dishes from miscellaneous and sundry mystery ingredients: sometimes to her children’s dismay.  But that is how we learn, isn’t it?

     I was going through my cookbook, the personal one I keep of my own recipes, and was surprised how heavy it is on the recipe end.  (It explains why my own end is so heavy.)   It also explains why so often, while wanting to cook something ‘different’ for dinner, I am so often at a loss, and will just stand with the pantry open staring vacantly.  That is when I have had my own “Chopped” experience, sans the cursed clock!  I will pull out a few standard ingredients, notice I am missing something vital and then grab something that just might be a viable stand-in.  Like the time I didn’t have seasoned Panko bread crumbs, but Hey!  What if I throw these Garlic Seasoned Croutons through the food processor?  Combined with plain bread crumbs, a little flour and Voila!  It made a wonderful breading for my Chicken Parmesan.  Okay, not exactly standard Chicken Parmesan, but my own take on it: recipe to follow.  My weakness is in forgetting to actually measure accurately, so much of it is just a rough estimate.  I also tend to rely heavily on my sense of smell when I season…tricky sometimes, I know.  But also quite reliable since the nose and the palate are so closely related.

Easy Chicken Parmesan Alfredo

·        4 boneless chicken breasts

·        3 Cups Garlic Seasoned Croutons (should make 2 cups crumbs)

·        1/3 c flour + ½ cup plain bread crumbs

·        2/3  cup shredded parmesan cheese

·        Salt and pepper to taste

·        1-2 eggs for dipping

·        2 Tbs. olive oil (or enough to coat bottom of your baking dish)

Run Croutons through food processor until finely crushed.  Mix in wide shallow bowl with flour, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and salt and pepper.  In  separate bowl lightly beat eggs.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Pour olive oil in glass dish.  Dip chicken in egg, then coat both sides thoroughly with coating.  Place in oven on middle rack.  Bake 35 -40 minutes, depending upon thickness of breasts. 

Easy Alfredo Sauce

·        1 stick butter

·        8 oz. cream cheese

·        2 cups milk

·        2 tsp. garlic powder

·        6 oz. grated parmesan cheese

·        ¼ tsp white pepper

In medium saucepan over medium heat melt butter, add cream cheese and melt while whisking continually.  Slowly add milk, continuing to whisk.  Add garlic powder and pepper.  Remove from heat and add cheese, whisking to remove any lumps.  Continue to stir until smooth and reaching desired consistency.  Sauce will thicken as it stands.  (A parmesan-romano cheese mixture may be used for added flavor.)

Serve Chicken with Fettuccini or pasta of your choice.  Place chicken on bed of pasta, sauce served over chicken and pasta makes everything scrumptious!  This also covers any drying out that may occur if you overbake your chicken!  Handy little trick, huh?  Serve with salad and garlic bread, and everyone’s full!

Crazy for Coconut

I am going to start a new blog!  This one will be on one of my favorite pastimes, cooking and baking.  I am not sure how I will approach this new blog, nor which direction I will take it, but will give it a go. 

Today I made a Coconut Creme Cake.  Something I have been wanting to attempt for quite some time.  I saw the desert on a new show I found on the Food Network:  Dessert First.  I have to confess, the host of the show sort of annoys me, but she does know her stuff.  I DVR the Saturday morning program and watch it at my leisure.  That way I can FF through the recipes I find not to my interest and slow down on the ones I do like.  All of the recipes are on the Food Network's website, which is extremely helpful, as the hostess of the program, Ann Thornton doesn't give very detailed instructions while you are watching. 
 
I had some bad luck with the cake myself, as it fell to pieces while I was trying to stack it.  I'm not sure if it was because I didn't let it cool long enough, or if it was too moist.  Nonetheless, I was making a half-cake for my daughter-in-law's 'half birthday'.  Her birthday is on Christmas Day and I came up with the idea of on June 25 giving her a half birthday party the first year she and Jason were together.  She was surprised, so now we try to keep the tradition up.  Tomorrow, the 25th, they will be on a plane to Togo, Africa, so we are having them for dinner tonight.  So, my disaster turned out to be not so bad after all!  Besides, it gave me an opportunity to taste test and I was very happy with the outcome!  Very good cake, I must say. 

The frosting is very runny, though and has to be refrigerated to set up.  It is difficult to work with and I didn't like it at all.  The Cream of Coconut made it very runny, I believe.  I could have added more sugar, but was afraid it would have made it excessively sweet. 

If anyone else tries it, please let me know your results.  I will look forward to comments and feedback, both on the recipes I post and on how well the blog is received.


Thanks.....Kerri

Coconut Crème Cake

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
• 1 1/3 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Fine sea salt
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 (13.5-ounce) can sweetened cream of coconut, well stirred (recommended: Coco Lopez)
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows
• 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut mixed with 1 1/2 cups toasted sweetened shredded coconut

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 (9-inch) diameter cake pans with 2-inch high sides.

Pour the flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Use a whisk to stir together. In a separate large bowl, beat the sugar, butter and sweetened cream of coconut until fluffy and it resembles whipped cream, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir to incorporate all the ingredients. With the mixer on low speed, beat in 1/2 the dry ingredients, followed by the buttermilk, and the remaining dry ingredients, scraping down the sides in between each addition, just until blended.

Using clean, dry beaters, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt in another clean large bowl until the egg whites are stiff but not dry. Cook's Note: You want to get the most volume from your egg whites, that's why it is essential that the beaters and bowl are clean

In batches, fold the beaten egg whites into the batter, being careful not to deflate the whites. Divide the cake batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. Spread the batter with an offset spatula to level the batter in the pan. Bake the cakes until a tester inserted into center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool the cakes in the pans on a wire rack, about 10 minutes. Gently run a small sharp knife around the pan sides to loosen the cakes. Turn the cakes out onto the racks and cool completely.

Place 1 cake layer, flat-side up, on a cake plate. Spread 1 heaping cup Cream Cheese Frosting over the cake layer, leaving a 1/2-inch border of cake around the edge. This will give the filling a place to go or spread when the second cake layer is placed on top-you don't want it to bulge out the sides!

Sprinkle 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut mix over the frosting. Top with the second cake layer, flat-side up. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake. For a retro look, I like swoopy swirls. The best way to achieve it is to spread the frosting using the back of a spoon. It's that easy!

Sprinkle the remaining coconut mix over the cake, gently pressing into the sides to adhere. Coconut Layer Cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut, well stirred (recommended: Coco Lopez)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Fine sea salt

Beat the cream cheese in a medium bowl until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the butter and beat until smooth. Add the sugar, sweetened cream of coconut, vanilla extract and pinch of sea salt and beat until well blended, scraping down the sides as needed, for about 3 more minutes