Chicken Cordon Bleu

So for all of you lovers of this tasty dish, I guarantee you this meal is neither hard to make nor expensive.  I know that we all generally think of this dish associated with weddings and therefore on a fancier note, but this honestly makes quite the perfect Sunday dinner, anytime of the year.  This past weekend my friend Adrian came over and I taught him how to make this tasty creation, but with a Kirsten twist (shhh the secret is always in the sauce).  We also enjoyed some absolutely wonderful desserts that he picked up from Lutz Bakery just down the street from my place on Montrose, if you are on a diet or are easily persuaded to eat too many sweets, I do NOT suggest stopping in here.  The aroma alone will "have you at hello". 

Chicken Cordon Bleu

 preheat oven to 425 F

•  4 good size chicken breasts, (butterflied and pounded out thin with meat mallet)
• 1 cup italian bread crumbs (or seasoned panko bread crumbs)
• 3 cups flour
• 2 large eggs scrambled
• 1 cup milk (maybe more)
• 1 lb deli ham sliced thick (smoked is the tastiest)
• 1lb baby swiss sliced
• 2 cups mayo
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup of fresh basil
• 6-8 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup of dry white wine (pinot grigio is my favorite)
• 1/2 cup of butter melted
• salt and pepper

1. In pie plate or good size bowl add together your italian bread crumbs and flour, mix well
2. in separate pie plate or good size bowl add together your eggs and milk.
3. take your chicken breast (make sure that when you use meat mallet you thin it out as much as possible but without creating holes in the chicken, the more holes the greater the likelihood that your innards will melt out) and dip in egg mixture, then transfer to flour/bread crumbs.  Really only one side has to be well drenched.  Return same breast to egg mixture and again to bread crumbs.  Set breast on plate/platter with side with majority of bread crumbs face up.  Repeat with other four breasts, and make sure to lay them so that they do not lie on top of each other (if they do, the bread crumbs will get mucky and fall off).
4. now take one of your breasts and flip it so bread crumbs are counter-side down.  Take three peices of ham and lay them so they overlap eachother horizontally.  Then take two peices of swiss and break them into small enough peices to place in middle of ham.  Fold up ends of ham onto the swiss (sort of like wrapping a present), and roll the ham so the cheese is snugly inside.  Basically you want to create a casing for the cheese with the ham so that when it melts it stays within the confines of the ham and therefore within the chicken.
5. Now place ham/cheese bundle on chicken breast, best if it is placed so it is close to the center of the chicken breast but still fully on one side of the butterflied filet (this makes it easier to roll).  Now take the other side of breast and roll it over the ham/cheese bundle.  Tuck edges in/under so as to secure everything to the best of one's ability.  You can then use a few toothpicks to make sure things stay secured (make sure to remember to tell you guests about the toothpicks, or take them out before serving).  Also if it now looks like you have some cracks in your breading, add some more breadcrumbs at this point so that you don't see any of the actually chicken)
6. Place into a 9 X 13 glass pan that has been greased with some of the melted butter. 
7. Repeat process with the rest of the chicken.  Once all the chicken has been rolled, lightly spread/dab the butter over the outsides of the breasts (using a pastry brush), soaking it into the breadcrumbs (this will get your cordon bleu's crispy without frying them). Lightly salt and pepper the tops of chicken.
8. Place in oven at 425 for at least 30 minutes, may want to go longer in order to give a more crispy golden brown coating.
9. While breasts are cooking, using a food processor or blender puree together your mayo, sourcream, garlic, and basil.  Make sure there are no chunks.  The sauce should be a light to medium green color and smooth.
10. Now in a small or medium saucepot, pour in the blenders contents.  Bring up to temperature over medium heat, do not let burn, stir every so often.
11. Once hot all the way through, turn up heat to high, bring to a boil stirring constantly so does not burn on bottom.  Add your 1/4 cup of white wine, stir for 2-3 minutes, then bring down to simmer over low heat.  At this point add salt and pepper to taste. Take off heat and put lid on pot, place to side.  (You may want to reheat a little later before serving, but better to take off heat so it doesn't burn/over cook).
12. Once chicken is golden brown, take out of oven and place on plate/platter.  Let sit for couple minutes, then serve with the sauce drizzle (or drenched) over the top of it.

**I like to make broccoli, cauliflower, or mixture of the two with this meal because the cordon bleu sauce tastes excellent atop this as well. Also serve this with a nice dry white wine, will bring out the flavors of your meal! (even though I still will of course drink red with mine)

Often the sauce is placed inside the chicken but I like doing it this way for two reasons: 1)  sauce may run out of the chicken breast and although everything will still be tasty, will not look nearly as good, and 2)  this way you can use as much sauce as you like, and trust me you will want to put this on everything!

What a Weekend to be Waited On

As much as I absolutely love cooking, and generally speaking I take this time to center my chi, sometimes it is nice to just sit back, enjoy a delish meal, and be waited on. Most importantly to me, when I am in this particular type of mood, is that the meal I have in front of me is superb.  That I'm not simply satisfied in terms of my appetite, but my palate is not left wanting.  So Friday night my friend Danielle and I had a girls night out and decided to try the Italian restaurant right down the street from me, Manzo's (corner of Kedzie and Irving Park, and you wouldn't even notice it unless you knew it was there).  Now I usually do not make it a point of going out for Italian food.  There are VERY VERY VERY few places that I don't think are a rip off, unauthentic, or of course both.  But if there was one person who I would take their opinion on Italian for fact, it would be Danielle, since she is even pickier in terms of this factotum since she is 100% Italian, in fact her mother is straight off the boat from Sicily.  Needless to say we were both more than pleasantly surprised.  The service was absolutely wonderful (our waitress Cheri was sooo incredibly appeasing it was a breath of fresh air, since often my number one complaint out is not the food, but the service).  The food was tantalizing, they had everything an Italian restaurant would normally have on the menu, and also quite a few more "authentic" items that you do not want to miss out on, like the Aranchini (rice ball with a meat center, fried, and served with marinara on the side).  I could have just eaten this for dinner.  Instead I thoroughly enjoyed the Veal Saltinbocca (veal filets stuffed with proscuitto and served in a white wine and citrus sauce), while Danielle went with a pasta dish of homemade cheese raviolis with meat sauce.  Both our meals came with either soup or salad, crusty bread and butter, and if you don't get a pasta dish you are offered a side of spaghetti or mostaccioli (with marinara or meat sauce), baked potato, side veggie of the day, or even french fries (which I thought a little odd, but to each there own).  Essentially we both took well over half our actual meals home.  Of course dessert was a must (just one of those weeks).  Danielle ordered the italian ice, which was so creamy I would have thought it was gelato, and I devoured a cannoli that was most undoubtedly one of the best I've ever eaten.  We also partook in multiple potent potables that were ridiculously well priced.  They do not have an extensive wine menu, but they have one of each of the major varietals.  I chose the chianti and was NOT disappointed, and was even more excited once I saw that it was a mere 5 dollars a glass!!!  Everything else on the menu was more than reasonable, and although I walked in there planning on indulging in terms of what I ate,drank, and how much I spent, I walked out of there having spent only 35 dollars on a 4 course meal, and three glasses of wine.

The very next day I played three and half hours of competitive indoor volleyball and my friend Adrian and I decided to go grab foodage since we were of course famished, and Danielle and Adam (her BF) were going to meet us wherever we decided to go.  I had yet to go to Kuma's Corner, which has been labeled by many as having the BEST burgers in Chicago.  I had also seen it featured on the Food Network on three separate occasions (so of course I was dieing to try it!).  You can't just walk in and think you will be seated immediately, be prepared to wait at least an hour and half, that way if its less you will be more than pleased.  The nice thing is that while you wait, you are welcome to order from a very tasty, and uncommon, beer list, that will both wet your whistle and keep you from extreme pangs of hunger (try the Alagash White, it's a keeper).  Although, since I had next to nothing in my stomach, two 16 oz drafts made me a little bit tipsy to say the least (half the fun of the experience).  The decor of Kumas is not by any means trendy.  It is filled with artistic variations of masochistic/sadistic/border line pornographic paintings and background music that you would normally be head banging to, or maybe starting a mosh pit.  The individuality of this place, of course heightens the experience but really, at the end of the day, it's the burger that keeps you coming back.  Each of their burgers is named after a heavy metal/rock genre band.  You will not find a burger with just ketchup, mustard, and pickles, NOSIREE.  The Mayhem was my burger of choice, containing 16 oz of 100% angus beef, cooked to perfection (for me that means practically still mooing) and topped with thick cut pepper jack, fried pancetta, slices of fresh jalapenos, and Gardinera mayo, all on a mouthwatering pretzel roll bun (lettuce, tomato, and red onion also on the side), and served with either tater tots, waffle fries, or side salad.  There are no words to describe the tastiness of said burger.  Yes the accoutrements were delish, but the burger in itself, that 16 ounces of indescribably juicy, tender, tasty meat, would have simply been enough.  I was in heaven!  I finished my entire burger, and was so completely stuffed, I had to leave the fries to the wayside (though they were in themselves awesome and perfectly seasoned).  I will definitely be slowly but surely making my way through that menu.

(In case you are interested I am pic 1 eating The Mayhem, describe above.  Pic 2 is Danielle eating The Neurosis: Cheddar, Swiss, Sautéed Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions, and Horseradish Mayo. Pic 3 is Adam, monstrously enjoying his The YOB: Smoked Gouda, Bacon, Roasted Red Peppers, Roasted Garlic Mayo)

So next time you don't feel like cooking, but still want food that inspires, either of these local haunts will do the trick, and then some!!!!

Joe's Birthday and His Favorite Meal: Pork, Wrapped in Pork, Stuffed With Pork

The birthday events for Joe actually began early Saturday April 24th morning (his bday is April 25th).  I put together a paintball private game at CPX in Joliet Illinois.  14 of us ended up going.  I always thought paintball would be fun, but this was on beyond my expectations.  Although I currently am harboring multiple bruises from being pegged, it was worth it.  We got there at 8:30 in the morning, and played til about 12:30 in the afternoon.  Split off into two teams (randomly chosen), and played on 5 different courses.  If you have never played before, I highly recommend it!  That night we were having everyone over for birthday party.  By the time I got home and showered I had about half an hour to sit back and relax before having to get up and get things ready.  While I cooked in the kitchen, joe cleaned up.  Most people arrived around 7pm, and were greeted by a bevy of drinks, pizzas, and other culinary concoctions.  I ended up making my homemade salsa and guac, along with my buffalo chicken tartlets (made them with mozzarella cheese instead of bleu), double chocolate cupcakes with strawberry jam filling and chocolate buttercream frosting, and something I like to call Dikta Wraps (in honor of the old Bears coach Mr. Mike Dikta).  Basically it involves smoked polish sausage, bacon, cheddar cheese, all wrapped in a crescent roll.....they must have been good cause we didn't put any away that night.  There was lots of poker being played, along with rock band, and other card games that were explicitly designed for drinking.  By the end of the evening I was absolutely exhausted, but I think Joe had an amazing time, which makes it all worth it!

The next day was his ACTUAL birthday.  We woke, cleaned up the place with the help of the other roomies, got some food (which actually consisted of left over pizza), and sat down to relax for a bit.  To my dismay Sean had brought over Avatar, which I had yet to see.  The movie doesn't seem like its that long while you are watching it, but by the time it ended it was close to two o'clock and Joe's family was coming over for dinner at 4:30!  This wouldn't have been too much of a problem considering dinner wasn't going to take that long however I was making Tiramisu for dessert (Joe's favorite) and that takes at least three hours to set up in the fridge......Thankfully I was able to get the tiramisu put together in about an hour, and started on the rest of the meal which included bacon wrapped pork chops stuffed with chorizo cornbread stuffing, with roasted Parmesan broccoli and cauliflower, and garlic mashed potatoes.  I already had made the cornbread a head of time, so it didn't take long to get everything done.  I was able to dash into the bedroom and change out of my festive, though dinner inappropriate, penguin pajamas and into something a little nicer JUST as everyone arrived.  The meal was a success, and I received the best culinary compliment I've ever had, when Joe's mom said that my Tiramisu she felt was better than that of Cafe lucci, in Glenview (which Joe constantly raves about being his favorite).  I would have to say Birthday celebration an absolute success.  And if you decide to make this meal and are looking for good wine pairings, try Q vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner, and with dessert Santa Margherita's Prosecco it's absolute perfection!

Bacon Wrapped Porkchops, 

with Cornbread and Chorizo Sausage Stuffing 

Oven to 400 degrees F

Ingredients

• 6 double cut, bone in, porkchops, butterflyed (double cut refers to the thickness of the chop, and you can ask the butcher to give you these, including butterflying them)
• at least 18 slices of bacon (thick cut, preferably peppered)
• 4 cups of cornbread
• 1 medium sized red bell pepper (diced)
• 1 medium white onion (diced)
• 1 cup of celery (diced)
• 4-6 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1 lb of chorizo or hot italian sausage, taken out of casing
• 2-3 cups of chicken stock
• 3-4 dashes of cayenne pepper, plus more to season outside of chop
• 1 tsp ground black pepper, plus more to season outside of chop
• 1 tsp creole seasoning (or simply seasoning salt), plus more to season outside of chop
• 2 tsp cumin, plus more to season outside of chop

1. In large pan or medium size pot, over medium to high heat, add your sausage.  Break up so it is in small pieces.  Cook til browned.
2. If look to be too much grease drain some out of the pan.  Over medium to high heat add your red pepper, white onion, celery, and garlic.  Stir, and cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Add your cayenne pepper, ground black pepper, creole seasoning, and cumin.  Stir til everything is evenly coated.  Cook for additional few minutes.
4. Add your 4 cups of cornbread.  Make sure you do not have big chunks, but your cornbread is more like breadcrumbs.  Mix thoroughly, and add 2 cups of chicken stock.
5. After mixing, if looks to be too dry, add half to 1 cup more of stock.  You do not want your stuffing to be too wet and mucky.
6. Now take your butterflied chop and add about 1/3-1/2 cup of stuffing into the middle.  Make sure you get it push back towards the bone really well, so that you can bring the edges of the chop so they almost close over the stuffing.  If you can still see the stuffing don't worry, thats what the bacon is for.
7. using all of the spices you had before, salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne.....season the outside of your chop.  Then using 3-4 peices of bacon (more if you think it needs it), wrap them around your chop so that the stuffing is no longer visible.  If you want you can use a toothpick or too to make sure the bacon stays.
8. Then in a large frying pan, add about 4 tblsp of olive oil.  Bring up to medium/high heat and sear both sides of your pork chops until the bacon is browned.  Once done, put over onto a baking sheet, that has been lightly coated with Pam.  
9. After you have seared all of your chops, and placed on baking sheet, put into a 400 degree F oven for 45 minutes-60 minutes.  Depending on how thick your chops actually are. If you cut into one and it is completely white, no pink, the chop is done.

Oven Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

• 2 lbs of broccoli, stems cut off, and cut into florettes
• 2 lbs of cauliflower, stems cut off, and cut into florettes
• 4 tblspn olive oil
• 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese

1. place broccoli and cauliflower in 9 X 13 baking dish.
2. drizzle the olive oil, evenly over the top
3. Sprinkle the Parmesan evenly over the top.
4. Place into the oven at the exact time you put your Chops in.
5. Flip ever 20 minutes so your florettes do not become overly browned.
6. Done when tender.

Seasoned Mashed Potatoes

• 4-6 lbs of red skin or yukon gold potatoes, washed well.
• 1 stick of salted butter (cubed)
• 8 oz bar of cream cheese (cube)
• 2 tblsp of creole seasoning
• 1 tblsp of ground black pepper
• 6-8 cloves of fresh roasted garlic (substitute with garlic powder or the minced garlic in oil you can buy in the store).

1. In large pot, quarter your potatoes, and cover with cold water.
2. Place over high heat, and cover, until they boil.  Once boil turn down to medium/low
3. Once fork tender, pour off water, get as much as you can out of the pot or else you will have runny potatoes.
4. using a hand mixer, whip in your stick of butter, and cream cheese.  Once it is all thoroughly mixed together, whip in your seasoning.
5. Taste....may need more seasoning but is up to you!

Tiramisu

 Ingredients

• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus 1 teaspoon,
• 1 1/4 cups dessert wine (I prefer to use either a coffee liqueur, godiva chocolate liqueur, or grand marnier instead)
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 cup cooled brewed espresso, or other strong coffee blend
• 1 cup ricotta or mascarpone cheese
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 8-10 ounces ladyfingers or Margherite cookies from Stella Dora work well too
• Cocoa powder, garnish

1. Place the chocolate in the top of a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, and stir until melted. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.
2. In the top of a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, beat the egg yolks and 3 tablespoons of sugar until pale yellow and frothy. Add 1/2 cup of the wine and whip until thick, being careful not to let the mixture boil (may not look like a thick custard at this point, but will once chocolate is added). Remove from the heat and fold in the chocolate (make sure to mix quickly so you don't get chocolate chunks). Cool to room temperature.
3. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, and fold into the cooled custard mixture.
4. In a bowl, combine the coffee, and ricotta and set aside.
5. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add the remaining teaspoon of sugar and whip until stiff peaks form.
6. Dip the ladyfingers into the remaining 3/4 cup of dessert wine (may need more) and arrange them in the bottom of a square 9-inch baking dish OR I like to use individual ramekins. Cover with half of the ricotta, half of the custard, and half of the whipped cream. Repeat with the remaining ingredients, starting with lady fingers and ending with whipped cream on top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours.
7. To serve, sift the cocoa powder evenly over the top

**you may want to let this sit for longer than three hours, OR make the night before.  Make sure to not sift the cocoa powder until you are ready to serve, or else you will get mucky chocolate topping (does not look pretty).

Tiramisu