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I think this was like the first "real" recipe that I ever learned, it was something that really got me into enjoying cooking. It's fairly straight forward and simple, I might have added a couple of personal touches over time, but in essence it's still the same. Hopefully you'll enjoy this as much as I do.
Ingredients:
boneless, skinless chicken breast (1 piece per person)
deli-sliced ham
sliced Swiss cheese
cream of mushroom soup (2 cans)
salt
pepper
Italian seasoning (basil, oregano, thyme)
garlic salt
butter
tooth picks (not for eating)
Cooking Instructions:
1.) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2.) Flatten/tenderize the chicken breast as much as possible. If the breast is really thick, I'd say, thicker than your hand, then you can fillet the breast in half, which saves you on some of the tenderizing. If you don't have a meat tenderizer, I've found that the flat of a cleaver works quite well.
3.) Rub the Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper into chicken breast. You can kind of make up your own rub, I made it once with a basil, oregano, and thyme mix that was a free sample in a Sunday paper, and it worked out really well, so I've never really looked back since.
4.) On the breast piece, place a piece of ham and a slice of cheese (the size of the chicken breast should be comparable to that of the ham and cheese), then roll into a roll and skewer with a tooth pick to hold together. Place it into a greased casserole dish or roasting tray. Do this until you run out of chicken, ham, or cheese
5.) Place tray into oven for 25 minutes. So some people have also had chicken cordon breaded, which you can do to if you'd like, just bread it when you roll it up. I'm not a huge fan because I think the chicken flavor with the rub will be brought out, especially when you make the sauce.
6.) In a sauce pan, heat up cans of cream of mushroom soup (add only one can of milk, not water). Add in butter and garlic sauce and mix until it is a thick sauce.
7.) After the chicken has cooked, apply sauce and reduce oven heat to 375 degrees F and bake the chicken with the sauce for about 10-15 minutes.
And there you have chicken cordon bleu. It's a simple and straightforward recipe I think and the result is a very, very tasty piece of chicken, ham, and cheese. The mushroom sauce sort of accents the chicken flavor, and hopefully also keeps the chicken from getting too dry. Hopefully this works out for you.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Grilled Salmon Teriyaki
So, in my previous post, I discussed how to make teriyaki sauce, basically if you carry that over, and now prep it with salmon, it turns out to be quite delicious. Of course, being fish, there's a slightly different prep method that I like using, but the basic recipe for the ingredients are the same. Please refer to the previous ingredient list and add a large fillet (steak) of salmon.
Directions:
1.) Grill salmon on a pan with oil. So the common question when dealing with fish is, "How do I know when it's done?" The easy way I like to deal with it, is to use relatively little oil, keeping an eye on the side of the fish. Generally speaking, the fish is done when it is no longer translucent, not when you can flake it with a fork. Once it gets to the flaking stage, you probably have overcooked it, and are going to end up with a little drier fish. As soon as half of the fish (measure by the edge) turns opaque (the meat), flip, and continue. Once the whole edge turns opaque pull it out of the pan, we'll be cooking it a little more so don't worry if there might be parts you can't see that aren't completely cooked yet.
2.) Heat up a pan/wok with cooking oil to high heat, add and saute minced garlic, ginger, and scallions. This is where I deviate a little from the original teriyaki sauce recipe. By sauteing the garlic, ginger, and scallions at a high heat, it releases a lot of the flavor in the ingredients, in and of itself, with a little salt, it could be a fairly tasty sauce as well.
3.) Put the salmon back into the pan with the sauteed ingredients, reduce heat. Basically, now is the time to mix the flavor into the fish. Liquid marinades don't work exceptionally well with fish, so I've found that one way you can get a little more flavor if you want to do some prep work before hand is to rub some salt into it and leave slices of ginger on it overnight. Now, make sure you get the garlic and ginger all over the fish.
4.) Add in soy sauce, sugar, and pineapple juice mixture. It's easier to mix these before hand to dissolve the sugar. 1-to-1 is usually a pretty good thing to go by, but of course, I prefer to adjust by taste. To change the sauce to more of a glaze take a bowl of cold water and mix in some corn starch until it's completely dissolved, then add to the sauce over heat.
There you have it. If you're scrapped for time, you can use the old teriyaki mix and apply it to the salmon and bake it in the over for 15 minutes at 400 degrees F. Of course, it doesn't come out with the nice crisp edge you'd get if you'd grilled it, which is what some people like.
Directions:
1.) Grill salmon on a pan with oil. So the common question when dealing with fish is, "How do I know when it's done?" The easy way I like to deal with it, is to use relatively little oil, keeping an eye on the side of the fish. Generally speaking, the fish is done when it is no longer translucent, not when you can flake it with a fork. Once it gets to the flaking stage, you probably have overcooked it, and are going to end up with a little drier fish. As soon as half of the fish (measure by the edge) turns opaque (the meat), flip, and continue. Once the whole edge turns opaque pull it out of the pan, we'll be cooking it a little more so don't worry if there might be parts you can't see that aren't completely cooked yet.
2.) Heat up a pan/wok with cooking oil to high heat, add and saute minced garlic, ginger, and scallions. This is where I deviate a little from the original teriyaki sauce recipe. By sauteing the garlic, ginger, and scallions at a high heat, it releases a lot of the flavor in the ingredients, in and of itself, with a little salt, it could be a fairly tasty sauce as well.
3.) Put the salmon back into the pan with the sauteed ingredients, reduce heat. Basically, now is the time to mix the flavor into the fish. Liquid marinades don't work exceptionally well with fish, so I've found that one way you can get a little more flavor if you want to do some prep work before hand is to rub some salt into it and leave slices of ginger on it overnight. Now, make sure you get the garlic and ginger all over the fish.
4.) Add in soy sauce, sugar, and pineapple juice mixture. It's easier to mix these before hand to dissolve the sugar. 1-to-1 is usually a pretty good thing to go by, but of course, I prefer to adjust by taste. To change the sauce to more of a glaze take a bowl of cold water and mix in some corn starch until it's completely dissolved, then add to the sauce over heat.
There you have it. If you're scrapped for time, you can use the old teriyaki mix and apply it to the salmon and bake it in the over for 15 minutes at 400 degrees F. Of course, it doesn't come out with the nice crisp edge you'd get if you'd grilled it, which is what some people like.
Teriyaki 101
So, a common thing to make is teriyaki, it's quick, it's fairly simple, and relatively easy to make. What makes teriyaki ultimately is the sauce, and so if you know how to make teriyaki sauce, then everything else just sort of falls into place. It can be used both as a marinade and as a sauce to serve over the meal, which lends it great versatility, hopefully you enjoy this.
Ingredients:
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup sugar
1 can of pineapple juice
garlic
ginger
scallions
1.) Mince garlic, ginger, and scallions
2.) Mix ingredients
Some of you might be wondering what the pineapple juice is for, usually a little citrus gives the teriyaki a little tang, and additionally, if used as a marinade, the acid helps to tenderize the meat. If necessary, you can replace the pineapple juice with orange juice as well, lemon juice might work too, but I'm afraid it might be a little too tangy. Basically that's all there is to teriyaki sauce, now how what to do with it is kind of the other question. Of course, the most basic is chicken teriyaki. You'd probably want a piece of chicken breast and grill it in oil. An option could be to first marinate the chicken in the sauce and then grill it. Use on whatever you want, it's teriyaki, they have teriyaki everything.
Ingredients:
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup sugar
1 can of pineapple juice
garlic
ginger
scallions
1.) Mince garlic, ginger, and scallions
2.) Mix ingredients
Some of you might be wondering what the pineapple juice is for, usually a little citrus gives the teriyaki a little tang, and additionally, if used as a marinade, the acid helps to tenderize the meat. If necessary, you can replace the pineapple juice with orange juice as well, lemon juice might work too, but I'm afraid it might be a little too tangy. Basically that's all there is to teriyaki sauce, now how what to do with it is kind of the other question. Of course, the most basic is chicken teriyaki. You'd probably want a piece of chicken breast and grill it in oil. An option could be to first marinate the chicken in the sauce and then grill it. Use on whatever you want, it's teriyaki, they have teriyaki everything.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Italian Nachos
I really didn't have a better name for this than Italian Nachos so that's what I called it, basically because it was inspired by the idea of normal (Mexican) nachos. It takes the idea of nachos, or chips and salsa, or x-number layered dip and transforms it by using Italian ingredients. I think it's kind of like bruschetta, but not really, I made it for a party once and the people liked it, so if I ever get the opportunity, maybe I'll make it again.
Ingredients:
Club crackers
2 cans of diced tomatoes
pepperoni
green bell peppers
onion
mushroom
mozarella cheese
Italian seasoning
salt
pepper
1.) Stew the tomatoes, begin by seasoning them with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and anything else you find to your liking.
2.) Dice all other ingredients, basically it can be anything that you would normally put on a pizza, the above listed are just my recommendations.
3.) When the tomatoes become more sauce like and start excreting more liquid, add the other ingredients.
4.) Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F (maybe this can happen first)
5.) Put the "sauce" into a deep baking/roasting tray (it's like salsa)
6.) Cover the top with mozarella cheese
7.) Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted
How to eat:
So since some people may not be familiar with it, basically, it's the equivalent of Italian salsa, the difference being that it's more of a savory flavor than spicy. Normally for nachos you'd include the chips in with the dip sometimes, but since we're using club crackers you don't want them to get too soggy. When it's done, you basically scoop up the "salsa" with a club cracker and enjoy, use a spoon if the stuff is too chunky (heavy to be scooped by a club cracker). I really loved this stuff, and it's a lot easier than bruschetta.
Ingredients:
Club crackers
2 cans of diced tomatoes
pepperoni
green bell peppers
onion
mushroom
mozarella cheese
Italian seasoning
salt
pepper
1.) Stew the tomatoes, begin by seasoning them with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and anything else you find to your liking.
2.) Dice all other ingredients, basically it can be anything that you would normally put on a pizza, the above listed are just my recommendations.
3.) When the tomatoes become more sauce like and start excreting more liquid, add the other ingredients.
4.) Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F (maybe this can happen first)
5.) Put the "sauce" into a deep baking/roasting tray (it's like salsa)
6.) Cover the top with mozarella cheese
7.) Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted
How to eat:
So since some people may not be familiar with it, basically, it's the equivalent of Italian salsa, the difference being that it's more of a savory flavor than spicy. Normally for nachos you'd include the chips in with the dip sometimes, but since we're using club crackers you don't want them to get too soggy. When it's done, you basically scoop up the "salsa" with a club cracker and enjoy, use a spoon if the stuff is too chunky (heavy to be scooped by a club cracker). I really loved this stuff, and it's a lot easier than bruschetta.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Homemade Hamburger Helper (Pasta made easy)
So, this is an old recipe that my mom made all the time, I added a little bit of my own touches here and there, but inherently, it's my mom's recipe. Essentially it's pasta with meat sauce, I personally prefer shorter pastas such as bow-tie, rigatoni, ziti, penne, and such, but this recipe works fairly well with spaghetti as well. Actually, I think it'd probably work the best with spaghetti, but I've yet to try that since I don't really cook a lot with longer pastas.
Ingredients:
1 lb pasta (I recommend spaghetti or bow-ties)
1 large can/bottle of spaghetti sauce
1 pack taco seasoning
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cabbage
mushrooms
1 green pepper
1/2-1 onion
minced garlic (if not available you can use garlic powder as a substitute)
Italian seasoning (basil, oregano, thyme)
salt
black pepper
Cooking instructions:
1.) Put a pot of water onto the stove, high heat, to start boiling. Add a little salt to the water, it makes the water boil at a higher temperature allowing for it to cook the pasta faster. When the water reaches a rolling boil, pour the pasta in. Allow for it to cook for about 6 minutes. To tell if the pasta is done, just try a piece.
2.) Dice all of the vegetables, mushrooms you can slice, but you want fairly small pieces for the cabbage, onion, and green pepper.
3.) Brown the ground beef on a separate pan (I like to use a large and deep wok). As the beef browns, add the onion, taco seasoning, and garlic and season with salt and pepper. It sounds kind of weird, almost like you're making tacos, but trust me, it works out really, really well.
4.) Mix in the sauce and the remaining vegetables with the beef. It should turn into a sort of meat sauce. Season with pepper and Italian seasoning. If you like the sauce to have a little more of a tang or flavor, I sometimes put in a little white cooking wine or vinegar.
5.) Serve over pasta, or if you like, something I enjoy doing is mixing the pasta and sauce into a large pot so it can be served on its own. Add cheese and crushed red peppers as desired for flavoring, but it really is quite good on its own.
With that, you have a hearty meal that can easily serve 4-5, or 3 hungry college students, of course you can always adjust the serving size to fit whatever needs you have. On that note, you can also adjust and put in other vegetables, really, the only requirements I think for this specific recipe are the ground beef, cabbage, and the onion, I like to add green pepper and mushroom for flavor, maybe you can add others, feel free to experiment, I think maybe zucchini and carrots might work in there too. Let me know if you try out anything and it works out for you! It's really quick, quite easy, and provides a fairly wide variety of foods to your diet. Bon apetit!
Ingredients:
1 lb pasta (I recommend spaghetti or bow-ties)
1 large can/bottle of spaghetti sauce
1 pack taco seasoning
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cabbage
mushrooms
1 green pepper
1/2-1 onion
minced garlic (if not available you can use garlic powder as a substitute)
Italian seasoning (basil, oregano, thyme)
salt
black pepper
Cooking instructions:
1.) Put a pot of water onto the stove, high heat, to start boiling. Add a little salt to the water, it makes the water boil at a higher temperature allowing for it to cook the pasta faster. When the water reaches a rolling boil, pour the pasta in. Allow for it to cook for about 6 minutes. To tell if the pasta is done, just try a piece.
2.) Dice all of the vegetables, mushrooms you can slice, but you want fairly small pieces for the cabbage, onion, and green pepper.
3.) Brown the ground beef on a separate pan (I like to use a large and deep wok). As the beef browns, add the onion, taco seasoning, and garlic and season with salt and pepper. It sounds kind of weird, almost like you're making tacos, but trust me, it works out really, really well.
4.) Mix in the sauce and the remaining vegetables with the beef. It should turn into a sort of meat sauce. Season with pepper and Italian seasoning. If you like the sauce to have a little more of a tang or flavor, I sometimes put in a little white cooking wine or vinegar.
5.) Serve over pasta, or if you like, something I enjoy doing is mixing the pasta and sauce into a large pot so it can be served on its own. Add cheese and crushed red peppers as desired for flavoring, but it really is quite good on its own.
With that, you have a hearty meal that can easily serve 4-5, or 3 hungry college students, of course you can always adjust the serving size to fit whatever needs you have. On that note, you can also adjust and put in other vegetables, really, the only requirements I think for this specific recipe are the ground beef, cabbage, and the onion, I like to add green pepper and mushroom for flavor, maybe you can add others, feel free to experiment, I think maybe zucchini and carrots might work in there too. Let me know if you try out anything and it works out for you! It's really quick, quite easy, and provides a fairly wide variety of foods to your diet. Bon apetit!
Food for Thought
So, among my many passions, one of the greatest is food. I thoroughly enjoy cooking and experimenting with cooking. Thus, this is a venue by which I hope to be able to share the experiences I've had regarding cooking and hopefully spread the joy and enjoyment of food to each of you readers out there. You'll notice that a lot of times I'll neglect to mention specific quantities for some of the recipes that I use, but I think that in those cases, it's a matter of discretion and preference. I also may tend to get a little verbose, but I enjoy writing in more of a conversational style, so that it's a fun read, since I want to share my experiences in the kitchen with you, more than just the food I make. I hope that you'll be able to grow in appreciation of cooking and the food art as well, and good eats to you.
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