Chicken piccata and a butternut squash salad

Well, I've been making a lot of Ina Garten's (the Barefoot Contessa) recipes. They are a hit every time. Everything I've made of hers is so delicious. Most chicken piccata recipes I've seen have capers in them. I was happy to find that this one didn't. I'm not fond of capers, or olives. Something about that salty, briny flavor that is too much for me. Here's the recipe:

• 2 split (1 whole) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 extra-large egg
• 1/2 tablespoon water
• 3/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
• Good olive oil
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons), lemon halves reserved
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Sliced lemon, for serving
• Chopped fresh parsley leaves, for serving

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap and pound out to 1/4-inch thick. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.

Mix the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper in a shallow plate. In a second plate, beat the egg and 1/2 tablespoon of water together. Place the bread crumbs on a third plate. Dip each chicken breast first in the flour, shake off the excess, and then dip in the egg and bread crumb mixtures.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium to medium-low heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook for 2 minutes on each side, until browned. Place them on the sheet pan and allow them to bake for 5 to 10 minutes while you make the sauce.

For the sauce, wipe out the saute pan with a dry paper towel. Over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and then add the lemon juice, wine, the reserved lemon halves, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Boil over high heat until reduced in half, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and swirl to combine. Discard the lemon halves and serve 1 chicken breast on each plate. Spoon on the sauce and serve with a slice of lemon and a sprinkling of fresh parsley.

Get out your rolling pin.

   

flour, egg, breadcrumbs

As you can see, I need a dining room table! I'm tired of eating on my end table!

And here's the butternut squash salad recipe. The meal paired so nicely together! I'm really into arugula right now. I didn't have parm. cheese, but this still was delicious. To make this easier, I bought butternut squash already cut up from Trader Joe's.

• 1 (1 1/2-pound) butternut squash, peeled and 3/4-inch) diced
• Good olive oil
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup apple cider or apple juice
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 4 ounces baby arugula, washed and spun dry
• 1/2 cup walnuts halves, toasted
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the butternut squash on a sheet pan. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, the maple syrup, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and toss. Roast the squash for 15 to 20 minutes, turning once, until tender. Add the cranberries to the pan for the last 5 minutes.

While the squash is roasting, combine the apple cider, vinegar, and shallots in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the cider is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Off the heat, whisk in the mustard, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

Place the arugula in a large salad bowl and add the roasted squash mixture, the walnuts, and the grated Parmesan. Spoon just enough vinaigrette over the salad to moisten and toss well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Goat Cheese Tart

A recipe from the Barefoot Contessa. Although I used a different crust recipe...a shortbread crust that a friend helped me make. This is LDelicious served with a green salad.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the board

Kosher salt

13 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, divided

3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

3/4 cup chopped shallots (3 to 4 shallots)

10 1/2 ounces garlic-and-herb soft goat cheese (recommended: Montrachet}

1 cup heavy cream

3 extra-large eggs

1/4 cup chopped basil leaves

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the crust, put the flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Cut 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) of the butter into large dice, add to the bowl, and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, add the ice water all at once and process until the dough becomes crumbly. Don't overprocess. Dump the dough out on a floured board, gather it loosely into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough on a well-floured board and fit it into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable sides, rolling the pin over the top to cut off the excess dough. Butter 1 side of a square of aluminum foil and fit it, butter side down, into the tart pan. Fill the foil with rice or beans. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and foil from the tart shell, prick the bottom all over with a fork, and bake for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of butter in a small pan and saute the shallots over low heat for 5 minutes, or until tender. Place the goat cheese in the bowl of the food processor and process until crumbly. Add the cream, eggs, basil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and the pepper and process until blended.

Scatter the cooked shallots over the bottom of the tart shell. Pour the goat cheese mixture over the shallots to fill the shell (if the shell has shrunk, there may be leftover filling). Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the tart is firm when shaken and the top is lightly browned. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and serve hot or at room temperature.

Things that contain bacon

So I broke up with my hair stylist and tried a new salon that happens to be a stone's throw away from....wait...are you smelling beef jerky?....yes, you guessed it PAULINA MEAT MARKET! This place is a beefy treasure in Chicago. Not only just it serve all of your carnivore needs, but there's lots of little gourmet items, that lean towards German-style of cuisine. Lots of mustards! European candies, crackers, homemade pastas...a one-stop shop if you're on your way to a party, a family function, a work event, wherever, you can find something to bring.

I was having a hankering for bacon, and oh boy, this is the best bacon I ever tasted! I also got one of those beef jerky sticks to snack on. 100 times better than a slim jim....this is the real stuff. Well I guess real is realative....I don't really know what they put in those sticks but they're darn tasty.

I decided to make some fall foods. These are roasted brussel sprouts with dried cherries, chopped bacon, pecans, shallots, sliced apples, and drizzled with some maple syrup. I didn't follow any one recipe, I just kind of made up my own on this one. This is paired with a good ole turkey sandwich...with bacon, so I'm callin' it a turkey club. I have fond memories of my Dad taking me to the Pleasantville Diner in NY and he always ordered a turkey club with fries. This is one of the few sandwiches that I apply mayo. Something about it paired with the bacon, goes nicely together. Just a light layer on the bread with generous amounts of salt and pepper. Happy lunching!

Don't wait too long to visit Hoanh Long

I've been living a stone's throw away from the Argyle Street asian restaurants for 9 years, yet have only recently been turned on to the deliciousness of Vietnamese cuisine. My "a-ha" moment was visiting Hoanh Long with my a group of folks from Old Town School. Located on Lincoln Ave, (the sleezy motel part of Lincoln)  just east of McCormick, it's not too far of a drive for North Siders...well worth the drive, actually, and you can go to Borders after. It's tough to find. It's in a little strip of non-descript shops, and you can usually find a spot right out front. But just so ya know, when you are driving north on Lincoln, it'll be on your left hand side and if you get to McCormick, you went too far.

So I visited in the summer and have been dreaming about the amazing meal I had ever since, so I finally returned with my friend Darrell. My first visit I had followed my director's advice on ordering and attempted to replicate that same awesome meal I had on the second visit. It was Darrell's first time, so he followed my lead on what to order. We started with the lemongrass beef salad to share. Large portion of perfectly seasoned thin strips of slightly crispy beef on top of a mountain of fresh herbs--basil, mint, cilantro, with sprouts, lettuce and fresh rice noodles. It's DIY here...they bring you a steaming bowl of water and the rice paper thingys to dip in the water to make your own spring roll type item. So it's fun...you can choose what to roll up in your roll of awesomeness! The combination of those herbs with a little of the rice noodles, sprouts for crunch and then a kind of sweet dipping sauce---WOW...it will excite your tongue.

For the entree I ordered a basic shrimp and veggie dish with rice noodles which I thought was going to be the same dish I ordered on my first visit, but sadly it wasn't. The dish wasn't horrible, but it wasn't half as good as the one I ordered the first time. After talking with my director at work, he said the dish I had ordered was "barbecue shrimp"....and said "that's the best one of the menu...and it's not one of their fried noodle dishes"....so I had just picked the wrong dish. This dish reminded my more of Chinese food, like I said, not bad, but not what I had envisioned. And I was searching for the noodles in it and even had to call the waiter over to ask him "where's the noodles"? He took my spoon, lifted up the veggies and said "right there....those are rice noodles". Well, I guess they were but they didn't resemble anything like a noodle. They were the shape of a stick of string cheese, fried up and tucked way under the veggies. Well, I certainly felt kind of stupid. Well I ate it anyway and now I now what to order for next time. The barbecue shrimp dish comes with all those fresh herbs from the appetizer and it's just fantastic. And the noodles are recognizable and not fried...the dish is VERY fresh.

I'm waiting for a really cold day to go there and try the Pho, which everyone is always raving about.

Check out what other folks have to say about Hoanh Long on Yelp!

Hoanh Long

6144 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60686

(773) 583-7770

quick weeknight dinner

How about some comfort food? Chicken soup with a tuna melt. Lately I've been adding giardenera to my tuna. It gives it a nice kick. Okay...I'll admit the soup is canned...Progresso. Sometimes when you get home from work, you're tired, it's cold outside and you want something hot on the table before "Modern Family" starts (for those non-tivoers), this is a good option. I got rid of my toaster over years ago...too bulky on the counter, too messy to clean. So I toast my tuna melt in the oven...just as easy. And that's good old American cheese on there. I think American cheese is under-rated. It melts so well, and the part-skim tastes just as good as the regular. In fact I really only want to eat American cheese melted. Now 1/2 the fat Havarti, on the other hand---not good. If you're gonna go Havarti, go for the gusto and get the real thing.

Mexican Chicken Soup

Sorry I've been gone from here for a while. I'm transitioning into a new career of doing kids music as my main career, with still teaching part-time at the Old Town School. I'm very excited about this new endeavor. And with working different hours, I'm hoping to have a few extra spare moments to cook up tasty dishes for your viewing pleasure.

It's that time of year when we pull out the crock pot, the stock pot, and serve up some hearty soups and stews. This one is stellar, by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, one of my favorite chefs, and the most fun (and freaking good) is making the homemade tortilla chips to sprinkle on top. Fun and soooo easy. I made this soup one weeknight at home by myself and I was like, holy moly, someone else needs to taste how awesome this is! I have posted this before on facebook a while ago, but it's worth posting again here on LDelicious!

• 4 split (2 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
• Good olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups chopped onions (2 onions)
• 1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)
• 2 cups chopped carrots (4 carrots)
• 4 large cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 1/2 quarts chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in puree, crushed
• 2 to 4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves, optional
• 6 (6-inch) fresh white corn tortillas

Directions

For serving: sliced avocado, sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts skin side up on a sheet pan. Rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until done. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, discard the skin and bones, and shred the meat. Cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the onions start to brown. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes with their puree, jalapenos, cumin, coriander, 1 tablespoon salt (depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock), 1 teaspoon pepper, and the cilantro, if using. Cut the tortillas in 1/2, then cut them crosswise into 1/2-inch strips and add to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and season to taste. Serve the soup hot topped with sliced avocado, a dollop of sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese, and broken tortilla chips.