Crunchy No-fry Fried Chicken

Les meves memòries d’infància es podrien resumir en tres moments feliços: els sopars d’estiu d’ou ferrat i patates fregides, quan l’àvia feia fideus a la cassola i quan hi havia pollastre arrebossat (sí, també tinc bons records que no comporten menjar, però són menys interessants).

I ara, 20 anys després, l’àvia segueix fent fideus a la cassola, els sopars d’ou ferrat i patates fregides, tot i no tenir ni ou ferrat ni patates fregides, són amb qui eren, que és el que els feia realment especials, però s’ha acabat el pollastre arrebossat. Ja se sap, et fas gran i descobreixes que els fregits són Voldemort, i alguna cosa dins teu et diu que tot ha canviat a partir d’ara, que res tornarà a ser el que era.

Per sort un dia, en un atac de nostàlgia, buscant buscant vaig trobar aquest recepta, que és com el pollastre arrebossat de la meva infantesa però menys greixós, més fàcil i amb formatge. Perfecte.

One year ago on May the Cheese Be With You: Salmon with Gorgonzola

Crunchy No-fry Fried Chicken

Servings: 6

Prep time: 15 min + 30 min baking time

You’ll need:

• 6 skinless boneless chicken breasts
• 200 g grated Maasdam (or Gouda, Emmental, Cheddar… almost any cheese will do)
• 400 g breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons oregano
• salt to taste
• olive oil

Start by preheating your oven to 180-200ºC. In a large bowl mix the grated cheese, breadcrumbs, oregano and salt, and cut the chicken breasts into about 1 cm thick slices. Now coat each chicken slice with some olive oil and press it into the breadcrumb mixture, until well breaded. Place the chicken slices on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and top with any remaining breadcrumbs and a drizzle of olive oil.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and heavenly-golden-brown-y-crunchy.

Enjoy!

Annie

A cheese-laden birthday feast!

Happy birthday to us!

We’ve been cheesing it for a year now, and we have been celebrating.

With cheese.

Of course.

So today we bring to you not one, not two, not three, but four recipes to put together an entire scrumptious meal orbiting around cheese.

We begin with an appetiser, featuring Feta cheese and ground walnuts, which technically make these little taste-bomb healthy. Almost. Be that as it may, these were absolutely, totally, like, awesome.

Our first course starred creamy pasta with Ricotta, paired with the freshness of lemon. The sheer simplicity of this dish belies the wonderful taste, which manages to transport you straight back into summer.

We chose chicken for our main course, and of course Parmesan, which simply had to make the cut. Dried tomatoes and basil rounded up this lovely, comforting one-skillet dish. We do, however, apologise for the pictures, but this was so good we literally forgot to take any more… You’ll just have to trust us on this one. Have we ever led you astray? 🙂

And last, but indeed not least, you cannot have a birthday without a cake. A cheesecake, of course. Scroll down and find out more about this little crowning jewel of today’s feast…

How can you say no?

Walnut Feta Cookies

Servings: about 40 cookies

Prep time: 20 minutes

You will need:

• 40 g ground or chopped walnuts
• 120 g, or 1/2 cup flour
• 120 g butter
• 120 g feta cheese
• salt and pepper

Let’s start out with the walnut. If you couldn’t find them ground, you can use a pestle and mortar to do the job. (We did 🙂 )

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients until you obtain a homogeneous dough, then roll it out to a thickness of roughly 1,5 cm.

Cut them out in any desired shape. We used a round cutter, but any shape will do, really.

Place on a greased or lined cookie sheet. Leave a little space between them, but not much is needed, since they really don’t grow at all. You can brush them them with a slightly beaten egg, or even milk, at this point, but this really isn’t necessary.

Place in a low oven and bake for about 10 minutes, or until light golden.

Lemon Ricotta Pasta

Servings: 4

Prep time: 10 minutes (seriously)

You will need:

• 350gr short pasta
• 200gr fresh Ricotta cheese
• the zest of 1 lemon
• 2 teaspoons dried, or 10 leaves fresh basil
• grated Parmesan cheese, to garnish

Cook the pasta as per package instructions.

Reserve two cups of pasta water before draining.

Meanwhile, beat together the cheese, lemon zest and basil until thoroughly combined.

Thin out with pasta water until fairly liquid, but still creamy. Return the drained pasta to the pot and mix in the Ricotta mixture.

Serve garnished with Parmesan and a few basil leaves.

Creamy Parmesan Basil Chicken

Servings: 4

Prep time: 30 mintues

You will need:

• 4 large chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 bread crumbs
• olive oil to cook the chicken
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup cream
• 1/3 cup minced dried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, or 2 teaspoons dried
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat a large skillet on low heat with the olive oil. Salt and pepper both side of the chicken breasts. Dip in the milk, then coat with bread crumbs and place in the pan. Cook for about 5 to 8 minutes on each side, or until cooked through (times may vary here depending on the thickness of the breast).

Remove from the pan, and add the broth to the same pan. When it boils, stir in cream and tomatoes and give it a good stir. Add the remaining ingredients and give it a few minutes to cook through.

Return the chicken to the pan.

Eat up. 🙂

Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake

Servings: 8

Prep time: 30 minutes, plus 50 minutes baking time, plus 2 hours chilling

You will need:

For the cheesecake:

• 1 cup shortbread cookies, crumbled
• 3 tablespoons ground almonds
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 4 tablespoons cream cheese
• 3/4 cup white chocolate, cut into squares and melted
• 2/3 cup sugar (optional; I didn’t think it was necessary)
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 3 eggs

For the raspberry sauce:

• 1 1/4 cup raspberry jam
• 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

Combine the crushed cookies with the ground almonds.

Mix in the melted butter until it forms a crumbly paste. Press into the bottom of a greased pan.

Combine the cream cheese with the melted chocolate.

Add the sour cream, sugar and eggs. Pour on top of the cookie crust.

Bake on medium high for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden brown and centre is still slightly wobbly, but set. It will firm up as it cools.

Place in the fridge to cool for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight.

Meanwhile, place the raspberry jam in a small sauce pan over medium heat until it melts down. Add the raspberries and bring to a simmer. Cover and chill until serving time.

Spoon the raspberry sauce over the cheesecake slices as you serve.

Enjoy! 🙂

Ham and Cheese Chicken Rolls

Avui he decidit deixar d’explicar-vos la meva vida i escriure sobre formatge. No definitivament, no patiu, però sí que de tant en tant dedicaré una entrada a un formatge en concret (que al cap i a la fi això és un blog de cuina amb formatge, per tant trobo que té com molt de sentit). Doncs bé, el nostre protagonista d’avui és el formatge fontina.

Aquest formatge, que està protegit per una DOP des del 1996, es produeix a la Vall d’Aosta, als Alps italians, allà a la frontera amb França prop del Mont Blanc. Per poder ser DOP (que es veu que aquesta DOP és una de les més restrictives dels formatges italians) només es pot produir amb tres races de vaca: valldostana peu vermell, valldostana peu negre i valldostana castana (no em mireu així, jo tampoc sabria diferenciar-les, per mi les vaques poden ser blanques i negres o marrons, i aquí s’acaba l’especiació). S’elabora durant tot l’any, però es veu que el millor formatge es produeix a l’estiu, que les vaques se’n van a pasturar a més altitud (deuen tenir calor, pobretes) entre 1800 i 2300 metres i s’alimenten només de pastures riques en essències aromàtiques que li donen una aroma característica a la llet (que els hi donen farigola a les vaques perquè el formatge sigui més bo, vaja). Quan es fa així, es diu fontina d’alpeggio.

Tot això és molt bucòlic, però després resulta que deixen madurar el formatge en antigues excavacions a la pedra de la muntanya per guardar l’arsenal militar durant la Segona Guerra Mundial, reconvertides en caves. De fet, ben mirat, allà on abans hi feien armes ara hi fan formatge, rotllo no a la guerra sí al formatge, que trobo que és poètic i tot.

El primer registre de la producció d’aquest formatge data del 1717, a  l’hospici del Gran San Bernardo i actualment se’n produexien unes 350.000 unitats a l’any. Hi ha tres hipòtesis sobre l’origen del nom: alguns diuen que ve de l’alpeggio Fontin, que són les pastures de la comuna de Quart (que potser és la hipòtesi que trobo més lògica), altres diuen que ve de Fontinaz, una localitat de Saint-Marcel (suposo que els francesos també volien protagonisme) i uns altres que ve senzillament del nom d’una família de formatgers (estareu d’acord amb mi que és la hipòtesi amb menys glamour).

No us en puc descriure el gust, l’heu de tastar. És bo, molt molt bo. Això de la farigola de les vaques deu funcionar.

Servings: 6

Prep time: 50 min

You will need:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 8 ham slices (or less, depending on the size of the slice)
• Fontina cheese (no exact amount here, just buy one small piece and we’ll think of other recipes to use up the leftovers 🙂 )
• olive oil
• salt (for an extra flavour I used a herb salt)
• toothpicks (about 16)

Start by eliminating all the nasty-yellowish-extra fat is usually attached to chicken breasts, and any possible bits of bone or other parts of a chicken’s anatomy that you don’t wish to eat. Then, with a good knife (I mean a really good cutting knife, well sharpened, not a regular it-sort-of-cuts-when-you-apply-enough-pressure-on-it kind of knife, and more of a I-keep-this-around-in-case-Chucky-ever-drops-by kind of knife) slice each chicken breast horizontally, so that you obtain two roughly equal slices of each breast.

Now cut thin slices of the fontina cheese (the thiner the slices are, the easier the assembling part will be) and cut your ham slices to make them be the size of the chicken breast (aprox). Preheat your oven to 180ºC, drizzle a little olive oil on an oven proof dish and get ready for some rock-and-rolling experience.

Take one chicken slice and layers the ham and cheese on top. Now roll it up carefully, pressing with your hands to prevent it from falling appart and to keep all the cheese in its place. We do not want to lose the cheese. At this point you should cut the roll in two, which can be critical for our save-the-cheese movement. Here’s the trick for a cut that will cause no cheese casualties: stick one toothpick in each side of the roll. This way the rolls will keep their shape and you won’t end up having a chicken-cheese-ham mess (which I got until I discovered the toothpick thing). Finally stick another toothpick into each roll, perpendicular to the first. The whole process should look something like this:

Place all your rolls vertically on the greased dish and sprinkle some salt on top (at this point you could add some herbs, like thyme or rosemary).

Bake them for 20 min and that’s it! Serve with a salad or with something to scoop up the excess melted cheese, like potatoes, pasta or rice. Remember, never waste cheese!

Enjoy!

BBQ Chicken Apple Quesadillas

Here’s the deal: While I am a true Barcelona gal, born and bred, I certainly do not look the part. I look like some Swedish reindeer spit me out on its flight across the skies on Christmas Eve. I look sort of, well, squeaky, like birds help me get dressed in the morning. Well, they don’t, and mark my words, sometimes it’s the squeaky looking girls that can blow the roof off the barn.

Mostly, my outlandish looks translate into being considered purely ornamental in most serious situations, but also people speaking to me in pigeon English and then short-circuiting when I answer in Spanish, let alone Catalan. Watching their gobsmacked faces is all good fun, just as long as it stays at that. But sometimes, ah, sometimes they will ask the dreaded question. Alas, that this should be my fate. “So… where are you from, then?” they ask. “Wow, you look like you’re [insert Nordic country of choice here]”. Or the very popular, “But you’re so pale!”. Or even, “Are you sure?”

I’ve lost track of how many times a day I’d like to turn to someone and say, “You can’t seriously be this freaking stupid.” Other times I just think, to hell with this, I’m going to Narnia.

So being American-Catalan-German-French isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Except when cooking. When cooking, it totally rocks. I know all the good stuff from all those different cultures. And I can bring them together to create one glorious riot of globalization. And then I eat it.

This recipe is the brainchild of one of those fusion-crazed moments. We’re basically talking about quesadillas, but Mediterranean style. But with BBQ-sauce. And Cheddar, for good measure. When I make these, I of course have to wear my old cowboy boots, which are a subtle nod to my Texas forbears. I truly believe you should wear them, too, or the result just might not be the same. Also, try singing a random national anthem, just to mess with people’s heads.

Servings: about 8 quesadillas

Prep time: 30 mintues

You will need:

• 1 whole rotisserie chicken
• 2 cups (500gr) shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 apples, peeled and chopped
• 1 1/2  cups (300gr) bacon, cooked until crisp
• 3/4 to 1 cup (200-250ml) BBQ sauce, or more, to taste
• 8 flour tortillas
• salt and pepper, to taste

We will begin with the chicken. Using your kitchen scissor, or if you’re feeling particularly primitve, your bare hands, shred the chicken, making sure to catch all those yummy rotisserie juices. Season with salt and pepper if you feel it needs a little kick. Combine the shredded chicken with the BBQ sauce until coated. Add more, to taste.

Before you start cooking, make sure you have all your ingredients handy. Place them in bowls around your workspace so you can access them quickly.

As you can see, my grocery store was all out of Cheddar. All they had was sliced Cheddar, which took about as long as the original Ben Hur movie to shred.

Now, place your pan on the stove, but to not preheat it just yet. Prop up two tortillas against eachother, thus…

…then layer with cheese, then chicken, apple, top with bacon and finish with a final layer of cheese. The exact amount of each is entirely up to you. If you want and XXL quesadilla, you can go crazy witht the stuffing. I wanted to keep mine light and crispy, so I went for a single layer of each.

Now you can fold over the quesadilla so they look like semi-circles, and turn on the heat. Cook on one side until golden brown and crisp (go ahead and lift the edge of a tortilla to check whether Mr. Golden Brown has arrived yet), then flip carefully and cook on the other side until, you guessed it, golden brown and crisp. Repeat the process with the remaining 6 tortillas.

Set aside for a few minutes so the cheese can melt into the other ingredients.

Serve with rice or a green salad, and some extra BBQ sauce.

Braised French Onion Chicken

I love windy weather. I thoroughly, utterly enjoy windy weather. I find it invigorating. Exhilarating. To me, it feels like coming home. I also love when it rains. Like, really rains. Pours, actually. Kiwis and komodo dragons (because cats and dogs are just too mainstream). Crashing seas, flooding rivers; you get the picture. Hell is breaking loose outside, and you are curled up inside near your heat source of choice, stuffing your face with all things winter. People go into hysterics and you’re all “Well, don’t panic. I’ll get the arc, you get the animals.” I am truly a child of wind and sea.

But then, sometimes, usually when you are on your way to work, planets align, fates collide, and the universe presents you with a magnificent alliance of chances: rain and wind, together.

And man do I hate when that happens. You stand alone on the dark and forsaken city sidewalk, wielding a flimsy pink umbrella (it really ought to be pink, you know), trying – desperately trying – to figure out where the hell to point the thing, as it seems to be raining upward. Water pours into your oh so stylish rain boots, rendering them quite useless, and the laws of physics work against you, preventing you from moving forward much at all. And just like that, standing on the edge of a dramatic cliff with your hair caught in the wind à la Pocahontas, or stuffing your face with all things winter à la Homer Simpson, is quite out of the question. What then, I ask myself, is the point of wind and rain, if one cannot be a blonde Homer-Simpson-shaped Pocahontas?

Alas, it seems the universe has no answer to that.

But I do. The answer is caramelized onions. And Gruyère. Those are really the only two things that can help survive said weather. Or at least recuperate, when all else fails.

Servings: I’d say about 7 or 8, but don’t underestimate the power of this chicken. People will go through it fast. It’s, like, superchicken. I bet it could fly. We should try tossing it out of the window.

Okay, on second thought, that might not be such a good idea.

Prep time: about 2 hours

You will need:

• olive oil
• 1kg onions, sliced into semi circles
• salt and pepper to taste
• thyme and rosemary to taste
• 2 cups (about 500ml) chicken broth, separated
• 1,5 kg boneless, skinless chicken, any cut, cut into filet-like pieces
• 2 tablespoon (30ml) balsamic vinegar
• 4 tablespoon (60ml) Dijon mustard (or any other smooth mustard)
• 200gr (7 oz) Gruyère cheese, grated

Start by just covering the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil.

Add the sliced onions and cook on low heat for about 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding some water if things get too dry. When the onions turn evenly beige, add some thyme and rosemary to taste.

Cook another few minutes, then turn heat to high and cook until onions turn dark, stirring frequently. At this point, add 1 cup of broth, scrape the pan for all those little burnt bits that are really the best thing ever, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, season your chicken with salt and pepper and brown it in a separate pan. Set aside.

Deglaze the chicken-pan with the other cup of broth, and carefully whip in the balsamic vinegar and the mustard. Or you can do what I did, and forget about the fact that you needed to reuse the chicken pan, place said chicken pan in the sink, then remember 10 minutes later that you actually did need the chicken pan, place it back on the fire, then remember that you had already poured soap on the chicken pan, and hastily return the chicken pan to the sink. But that step really is optional.

Now fill the bottom of an oven proof dish with the caramelized onions, making sure to include all those juices we have been carefully producing. Top the onions with the chicken, trying to keep them in a single layer, if possible.

As you can see in this picture, it isn’t always possible.

Pour the balsamic Dijon sauce over the whole thing and cover the dish with a double layer of aluminium foil. Bake on medium-high for 30 minutes.

Remove the dish from the oven, uncover and sprinkle with cheese. Now, the amount of Gruyère you top this with is entirely up to you. You can give it a light sprinkling and keep it healthy. Or – not. You see, this may come as quite a surprise to you, but I truly, honestly, love cheese. I know, you never would’ve known, right? So what I did was grate some Gruyère, top the chicken with it, survey the dish with a dissecting eye, and then double the amount of cheese.

Just right. Now place it back in the oven and give it another 5 minutes on high heat.

It will look entirely too liquid when you remove the dish from the oven, but trust me, this is as it should be, as the sauce will thicken as it cools a bit. And I do recommend you allow it to cool a bit, unless you enjoy having burn-blisters on your tongue.

And yes, I speak from experience.

Enjoy!