Cornmeal Chicken Cutlets Done My Way

             Last night I came home from a Yankee game and I wasn't sure I wanted to eat for dinner. I was conflicted with either going to the diner and spending money, or cooking something at home and saving a few bucks, with a sink of dirty dishes as the only price. After nearly two hours of contemplating, I finally went with staying home and doing something with the chicken cutlets I had purchased many days ago. I figured 12:40 am was the ideal time to cook a meal and eat it.

             Usually when I make chicken cutlets I like to bread them, but this time I wanted to add a new wrinkle into the mix to make them that more interesting. To add taste and make the crust more crispy, I decided to bring corn meal into the fold. Starting out with my chicken cutlets which can be purchased from any friendly neighborhood supermarket, I brought out flour, bread crumbs, three eggs, oregano, herbs de provence, salt, lemon juice, cooking oil, and the star of the show: corn meal. For a side dish I wanted to boil up some spaghetti. Had it been earlier in the evening I would've also done a sauce, but due to the lateness of the hour, I was going to stick with keeping the pasta plain. Once I started getting everything together in the kitchen, Leo heard the stirring around and came in to see what all the commotion was. It's usually quite annoying to try to cook with Leo around as he makes many attempts to try to get at the food. I was going to lock him in the living room, but when I noticed he was quietly perched upon the kitchen radiator, I figured I would let him stay for the time being.

             Many people make the mistake of dipping the cutlets into the egg yolk as the first step, that's actually step two. What needs to be done first is coating the raw cutlets with flour; just pour some flour onto the cutlets and massage the powder on all exposed surfaces. Then take the three eggs and break open the yokes into a bowl. Once I threw the egg shells into the garbage, Leo leaped off of the radiator and peeked into the garbage to see what treasure I just had disposed of. With the floured-cutlets and egg-dip bowl ready, the final preparation is the bread crumbs. Pour some bread crumbs onto a dish, and then add dashes of salt, oregano, herbs de provence, and of course the corn meal. You can use a utensil or even your hand to mix up the bread crumb-corn meal concoction It's best to organize each dish and bowl in order like an assembly line. Starting from the left; there's the cutlets, the eggs, the bread crumbs, and to the right an empty plate to house the breaded cutlets. Again, you can either use a utensil or even you hand for the breading process. Take a cutlet, dip it completely in the egg yolk, then place in onto top of the bread crumbs (flip it over to cover both sides), and once covered by the crumbs, place in the plate. When all the cutlets have been breaded, this is when you can take the lemon juice bottle and give the chicken slices a few squeezes of juice for extra flavoring.

             With the cutlets ready to go, I poured some cooking oil onto my trusty iron pan and let it heat for about three minutes. That's when I took a folk to carefully place all four pieces of cutlet onto the hot pan. The initial sizzle noise from the chicken hitting the pan let me know it was officially game time!! Leo came over for a closer look to see how this phase of the cooking was panning out. Each side requires about ten to twelve minutes to cook, so I didn't want to start the pasta until the first side was done. I kept taking little peeks underneath the cutlets, and once I saw the dark brown grill lines from the pan, I knew it was time to flip them over. Leo was still curious about those discarded egg shells, but too bad for him the garbage cover was down. When the cutlets where on their other side, I poured the spaghetti into the boiling water and let the both of them race towards the finishing line. Leo grabbed a spot at the kitchen table in anticipation that he was going to join me for this meal. In about ten to twelve minutes, same as Side A, the dark brown lines from the grill where in clear view and the cutlets were ready to consume. In about this same time the spaghetti was nice and soft and I was able place everything onto my plate. Just as I hoped, the added corn meal kept the cutlet crust firm and in its place. Far too often with chicken cutlets, once you start cutting them with your utensils, the layer of bread crumb slips right off like a sock. That's definitely not the case when the corn meal is there to lend support.

             Adding corn meal to cat food might be a whole other story..........

Steamed Mussels in Rum Sauce Done My Way

             While shopping at Fairway and walking by the seafood section, my eyes suddenly locked onto a bag of mussels bounded by a thin purple net. I frequently enjoy mussels as an appetizer when I go out to eat, but I never actually tried making them myself. For some reason I'm always hesitant when it comes to cooking seafood because it always seems more complicated than other categories. I walked away from them to go after other items in the store, but I couldn't shake the prospect of cooking mussels off my mind, so I went back and bought them.

             Mussels that are purchased in a store or supermarket were likely raised on a "seafood farm" and already cleaned, but of course it's best to wash them off in a bowl and let them soak for about fifteen minutes before cooking. Any that are broken or already fully open should be thrown away promptly. Typically mussels are cooked in a wine sauce, usually white wine. For some reason I thought I had a bottle of white, or at least red, under my sink as an old gift someone had given to me that I never opened. The options I was left with instead was a spray bottle of Windex cleaning fluid and a bottle of Rhum Barbancourt, which is a rum brewed in Haiti. I didn't feel like walking to the liquor store to buy a bottle of wine, so the rum was going to have to do. I like pasta with my mussels, so I also planned to make some fresh (of course) linguine in tomato sauce on the side with it. In addition to the mussels, rum, linguine, and tomato sauce/paste, I what is needed is olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a bouillon  salt, black pepper, herbs, and garlic powder. 

             Since the pasta takes the longest to cook, I boiled up some water and sprinkled in some salt to get that started. Mussels take the fastest to cook, so I just left them soaking in a bowl of water as I focused on the gravy. I went with three cans of sauce, one of paste, poured in a little olive oil and vinegar, sprinkled in garlic powder, black pepper, salt, and herbs, then crushed a bouillon cube and dropped it in. I put some fire under the sauce and stirred it up. By this time my water was boiling, so I poured in a little bit of olive oil and dropped in two handfuls of the fresh linguine. With the pasta and sauce well on their way, it was time to work on the mussels. They could be steamed, grilled, broiled, and I really wasn't sure yet what method I was going to use. I looked in various kitchen cabinets and luckily discovered I actually had a steamer pot, which I don't recall ever having before and don't have a clue where it came from. 

            Whether using rum, Windex, or the more traditional white wine as a sauce, its important to not use too much of it, otherwise it dominates the flavor of the mussels and defeats the whole purpose. When mussels open up from being cooked, they actually emit their own juice which give them their unique taste. Pouring too much of the sauce into the pot will dilute these natural flavors from the mussels when they open. Use about a cup and a half into the pot before dumping in the mussels, then when the mussels are in, pour the remaining half cup amount on top of the pile. So really in total its about two cups worth of sauce only being used. Also at the bottom of the pot I put in some olive oil, black pepper, herbs, salt, and garlic powder to flavor it up more. Once those were settled in, I put the cover on the pot and had all three parts cooking in tandem. As mentioned before, mussels cook very fast and after only five minutes I peeked in and noticed most of them were already opening. I used a big spoon to mix them up a little so they could all get an equal splash of the sauce flavoring at the bottom of the pot. Then after another four minutes they were all done and I turned off it's fire. 

            The pasta and the sauce soon followed suit and I was just about ready to sit down to this rum-experimented meal. The great thing about cooking mussels in a pot is that it is also typically used to serve the food in as well, so that's less plates to worry about cleaning later. All that is needed is a bowl to dump the empty shells in. After straining the pasta and placing it on a plate, I poured some sauce on top, and since I had plenty of sauce leftover, I poured the rest on top of the mussels to add more flavor and provide a nice decor. Its recommended to have a nice soft loaf of Italian bread to dip into the mussels' sauce, but since I didn't feel like going out before, I had to utilize slices of wheat bread for that. The mussels certainly had a kick to them due to the rum, and it was almost like taking mini-shots, especially after eating the ones at the bottom which had been soaking in the rum sauce the longest. All in all I must say it turned out better than I imagined it would be and found a new taste with mussels I never had before. 

             With all the rum, I felt very sleepy and had to take a nap after eating....

                                         

Special Video Edition: Burgerdog Quesadilla Done My Way

             
                 Ever wish you could combine hamburgers, hotdogs, and quesadillas all into one? 

      

                                                               Now you can!!

                                              Check out my latest video to learn how. 

                                   

                                   CLICK HERE to be brought to YouTube to view video

   Special thanks to Casey and CIII Productions for lugging the late hours in putting this together.

Cheese Ravioli in Prosciutto di Parma Sauce My Way

            With a fresh batch of cheese ravioli to cook, I wanted to find a new variation of meat to go along with it instead of the usual meatballs or sausage. Taking a peek in my refrigerator, my answer was laying on the second shelf, prosciutto di parma. I purchased a quarter-pound of it sliced a few days earlier and felt this was a great opportunity to experiment. About seven or eight months ago I tried a slice of it and since then it's moved up to the top of my chart in terms of cold cuts meat. I never tried it cooked or heated before, so this was certainly traveling into uncharted waters.

             The sauce always has the most steps, so its the best place to start. Use three cans of tomato sauce with a can of paste to even out the texture. Next, pour in a few teaspoons of olive oil as well as balsamic vinegar to bring out a little sweetness. To add flavor to the sauce you can sprinkle in some garlic powder, black pepper, and crumble up a chicken bouillon cube with your fingertips. Don't put the prosciutto in just yet, the key is to keep the meat soft and tender, at this point its just about cooking up the sauce first. As that heats up for a good ten minutes, its time to move onto the pasta. The star of the show are the ravioli, so after boiling up a hot pot of water, sprinkle in a little salt, pour in a little olive oil, and dump in a couple of dozen ravioli so those can begin cooking as well.

            Remember to keep going back to the sauce every few minutes to give it a stir, otherwise it will burn at the bottom of the pot and have a clumpy surface up on top. Ravioli has a unique shape versus other pasta, this serves as a mjaor benefit because once you see them start floating up on the water's surface, you'll know they're just about done. This is the moment when you add the prosciutto. It's best to shred up the slices into tiny pieces and add it to the sauce. Stir it up for a few minutes, but only a few minutes, its important the prosciutto doesn't cook or get burned. By this time the ravioli should have been floating up top for a few minutes now, so its time to take those out of the pot by dumping them on a strainer to get all the water out. After a few minutes, everything should cool down a little, so then empty the ravioli from the strainer onto a plate, pour on a layer of the sauce with the prosciutto di parma shreds mixed in, and dig in!

            The best dishes are the ones you don't expect....

Special Video Edition: Liver Done My Way

                           The all video edition of me doning a blue-flower apron and cooking liver.

                        Get out a pen and paper and take down the ingrediants to this exquisite dish.

                                          Special thanks to Casey for all his diligent work!!!

                             CLICK HERE to be brought to YouTube to watch cooking video