Snacko Backo

Last April, I went to London. I met up w. my friend Justin— and he introduced me to his friend Cliff. Cliff could not  not have been nicer and his house- was just so homey- and he had this amazing garden outside w. fresh herbs etc. To top it off, he had worked on these British cooking shows! Could anything be more up my alley? We all watched a bunch- and I flipped through a cookbook from one of the shows–Cookery School? I took a bunch of pics w. my iphone (my favorite way to copy a recipe). Last wknd ending up making 2 of them– this and sticky toffee pudding (post to come.) And in a word— I’d call this dish satiating.  Made for a great meal- brunch and dinner.

People always talk about being so sick of chicken– but I will tell you that I rarely make it– and certainly not more than any other meat. True story– an acupuncturist told me that I should eat less chicken and turkey–because they were highly neurotic birds– and that might be, taking effect so to speak. So she advised to diversify. But this was so good- I will definitely be making again and again– neuroses be damned.

For the schnitzel: [i halved the recipes below]
4 boneless chicken breasts, butterflied
1 cup plain flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups fresh white breadcrumbs (or I used half fresh wheat breadcrumbs (piece of bread pulsed in food processor) and half dried panko- Japanese breadcrumbs)
6 tablespoons olive oil

for the crispy capers and fried egg:
2 tablespoons olive oil
50g capers.. which is pretty much 2 oz or a handful of capers… I used 6 tablespoons. drained
4 eggs
8 fresh anchovies (anyone?)
1 lemon, cut into wedges

I served w. 1 bunch broccoli rabe w lemon.

Line cutting board w. a piece of saran wrap. Put a chicken breast down. Lay another piece of saran wrap on top. Using a rolling pin– or if you don’t have can use a heavy pan– bang down on chicken to flatten out (you will be surprised how easy this is). You want chicken to be about 1/2 an inch. Remove from saran and repeat w. other 3 breasts.
Prep your counter w. 3 shallow bowls or plates (see below). One w. flour. One w. breadcrumbs. One w. eggs.
To bread chicken. Dip in flour, shake of excess. Dip in eggs. Cover w. breadcrumbs. And into the pan. (you don’t really want to let your breaded chicken sit around, so if cooking in two batches, wait until first batch in pan to coat second.)
[Depending on the size of your pan- you can either cook one or two at a time- i could only fit one- you want to give it space to breath- adjust oil accordingly.]
Heat a large skillet. When hot, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil (enough for 2 breasts). Fry chicken for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Flip over and cook another 2 mins.
Meanwhile, in a small pan fry capers. Heat one tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add capers and fry for 3-4 minutes until they get crispy.
Reusing one of the pans- heat remaining tablespoon of olive oil (obviously use less if making less eggs). When oil hot, crack eggs into pan. Cook 2-3 minutes. If you want to be pretty- you can use a cookie cutter to perfect the edges.
To serve. Lay chicken down. Egg on top. Sprinkle capers over. If using, lay anchovies over egg.
Lovely served w. wedges of lemon or simple salad. I served w. broccoli rabe. In large skillet, heated some oil and I threw broccoli in whole. Cover for a few minutes- maybe 5. Finish w. extra olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh squeezed lemon.
Obviously, if you have leftovers– fry the egg before you serve. Chicken and capers reheated nicely in oven– on cookie sheet for 500.

Japanese two posts in a row!  Donburi is a rice bowl dish,  and while ground chicken is not something I ever make- this Harumi recipe intrigued me.  It is seriously tasty– and very quick and easy to make.  It is topped with sweetened shiitake mushrooms and a (just a little bit) runny egg.  I decided to braise some napa cabbage on the side, as Jess gave me her CSA stash, and I had to put it to good use.

Ground chicken came as one pound package- so I doubled the recipe below:
1 cup (1/2 pound) ground chicken [if you can’t find ground chicken, you make your own by putting boneless chicken into a food processor]
1 1/2 tablespoon mirin
3 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon superfine sugar [to make superfine sugar, I put regular sugar in a coffee grinder for few pulses.  If you don’t have, just regular sugar would work fine]

6 dried shitake mushrooms (or other kind of mushroom), soaked in 1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon superfine sugar

1 egg
cooked rice
a few snap peas- to garnish [I left out]

Chicken:
Put minced chicken, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar and in a pan and simmer [over medium heat], until nearly all the liquid is evaporated. [This took me about 12 minutes.]

Sweetened Mushrooms:
Soak mushrooms in warm water until soft, then lightly squeeze out, removing excess water, reserve excess water.  If any mushrooms are big, slice.  Put all ingredients in small skillet, including the 1/4 mushroom water. Bring up to a lively simmer.  Cook until most of the liquid is evaporated [this took about 5 minutes.]  They get sort of caramalized.

Make rice.
Make egg, by boiling for 8 minutes in boiling water.  Place in cold water to cool. Peel and quarter.

Braised Cabbage- this recipe comes from Boston.com from Karoline Boehm Goodnick (ah, the internet)
3 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 small head napa cabbage, cut off bottom end, slice in half lengthwise, remove core, cut into rough 2 inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, cut into matchsticks [do this peeling, then slicing into rounds. then stack and slice across stack of rounds to get matchsticks]
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

The key to this- is to cook the cabbage in a searing hot skillet- high heat is essential – to caramelize the leaves. Saute in two batches so overcrowding doesn’t steam the vegetables.
In a large skillet or wok, heat 1 teaspoon of the vegetable oil . When it is very hot, add half the cabbage. Cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes or until leaves begin to brown. Remove them from pan. Use 1 teaspoon of the remaining vegetable oil to cook the remaining cabbage in the same way; remove from the pan.
Add the remaining 1 teaspoon vegetable oil to pan. Cook the garlic and ginger, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
In a small bowl, stir together the water and cornstarch. Stir the soy sauce into the pan. Add the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil.
Return all the cabbage to pan, stirring well to coat it all over. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until the cabbage is tender.
Remove from the heat. Stir in the scallions and vinegar.

My first attempt at Pork Chops. They never really appealed to me before– but then Sam made some maple glazed pork the other day– and i realized– it is kind of just like more flavorful chicken. The other white meat? I guess so.  So for my first foray, I thought pork chops stuffed w. a bacon, sage, cornbread stuffing just had to be good. This is adapted from a Silver Palate recipe– which they call Tuscan Pork Chops. See their lovely diagram for how to cut a pocket into your chop- for stuffing.

2 pork chops (center-cut, boneless, about 1 1/2 pounds total)
1/2 cup corn bread or muffin (I made Jiffy mix, which takes about 15 mins, how I do it- it yields about 4 muffins- and 1/2 cup is one muffin. You could also just buy a corn muffin or bread)
pinch of dried sage (I used 2 fresh sage leaves)
pinch of dried thyme (would have used fresh but co-op was out of it)
1 oz prosciutto, slivered (i subbed bacon- because I had some in the freezer- i’d say 2-3 pieces- it worked nicely)
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped onion (about half a small onion)
1/4 cup chopped fennel bulb (about 1/3 of a bulb)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons chicken stock
1/4 cup apple cider
1 tablespoon olive oil
fresh ground pepper

1. Cut a pocket in each chop: insert the point of a small sharp knife into the flesh side of the chop. Make an internal horizontal cut in one direction without enlarging the outside opening. Remove the knife, and insert it again with the blade facing in the opposite direction. Make a second cut in the opposite direction without enlarging the opening.
2. *If using prosciutto, Heat the oil in a small skillet, and saute the fennel and onion over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add prosciutto, cook 2 minutes. Set aside 2 tablespoons of this mixture. * If using bacon, leave out oil (because just going to saute in bacon fat instead). Start by sauteing the bacon, for a 2-3 minutes. Then add onion and fennel, and then cook for another 3. If using fresh sage and thyme, add in. Cook until fennel/onion mix softened. Reserve 2 tablespoons of this mixture.
3. Take off heat, add stock, corn muffin,  and pepper. Move to bowl and allow to cool slightly.
4. Fill each chop pocket w. stuffing mixture. It is going to look like it doesn’t fit, put just push to the back of the pocket with your finger.
5. Melt the butter in a skillet (i used the same skillet as before, not cleaned, just crumbs swept out) just large enough to hold the chops. Brown the chops, over medium-high heat, 2 mins per side. Pour off fat, and add remaining 1/2 cup stock and the cider. Sprinkle the reserved fennel/bacon mixture over the chops. Cover and cook 15 minutes** this was too long, I did 13 mins- and i burnt up all the stock. So maybe even done after 11 mins. To get all of the burnt stuff off, add wine or whatever you have sitting around to deglaze/clean.