Meat « (y)our food choices™

Last week our good friend, Paul, sent us a link to a Chow recipe challenge: “Make chicken breast exciting!” The prize, if we won, was an cordless electric kettle; something I’ve been wanting, not actually needing, since we got rid of our teakettle and abandoned our coffee maker for the more en vogue Blue Bottle single cup drip process. Of course, boiling water in a pan on the stove is as easy as, well, boiling water. The prize really wasn’t the point of the contest to us. We wanted a way to promote our blog in a more aggressive way than just updating our status on facebook and twitter.

The contest deadline was Sunday, March 6, at midnight. While we had been discussing our plan of attack for the contest the day before, we decide we would try out three different recipes, all of them would have some sort of stuffing. So it was off to Trader Joe’s and our local vegetable market for the items we would need. Saturday night didn’t turn out to be the best night in the kitchen. We were both grumpy after a long day of flea market shopping where we found many vintage cookbooks, and what may be priceless works of art (at the very least we’re only out a few dollars for the art). So, we decided to wait until Sunday to work on the chicken recipes.

After a good five mile run, with less than twelve hours before the deadline, we got to work on the chicken breasts. Amazingly, we worked well together in the kitchen, something very rare given the challenges posed by two grown men moving about in our tiny kitchen, creating three different involtini: one baked, one poached, and one fried. As we finished up the cooking around 4:00 pm we realized we didn’t have time to write out the recipes for the contest before getting ready for a 7:30 pm concert in Berkeley. As it was, we barely made it to the concert with only two minutes to spare before the music started.

Who really needs an electric kettle to heat water anyway? A pan full of water and a stove is all we need. Aside from three new and interesting versions of Chicken Involtini to share on our blog, we also spent a wonderful afternoon working in harmony in our kitchen. Not a bad way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

We’ll share each of the recipes in coming posts. Let us know what you think of these recipes and share your variations with us here in the comments.

Chicken Involtini with Apple & Bacon served with Applejack Country gravy

Filling
1 slice bacon
1 medium firm apple, peeled and minced
1 small shallot
1 tablespoon Applejack
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
salt and pepper

2 chicken breasts
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 egg, scrambled
1/2 cup panko crumbs

Applejack Country Gravy
2 tablespoons reserved bacon fat, butter, or olive oil
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon Applejack
1 cup whole milk
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon finely chopped sage

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Fry the bacon in a small sauté pan over low-medium heat until crisp. Remove the bacon and set aside to cool, once cool, crumble into small bits. Pour the bacon fat out of the pan and reserve for the gravy. Add the shallots to the pan and scrape up the bacon bits from the pan. Add the minced apple and sauté until tender 5-8 minutes. Add the Applejack to the pan and cook off until all the liquid is gone. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a plate to cool.

Butterfly, pound, stuff and roll.

In the meantime, carefully butterfly the chicken breasts by cutting through the center of each as if you were opening a book. Do not cut all the way through. Open the breast and place between two sheets of plastic. Using the flat end of a meat tenderizer or the flat bottom of a small sauté pan, gently, but firmly, pound the chicken breast between the plastic making sure to pull the mallet away from the center toward the edges of the cutlet. Pound each breast until about ¼ to 1/8 inch thick. Season the inner part of the breast with salt and pepper.

Once the apple filling is cool, add the crumbled bacon, cheddar cheese and sage. Divide the filling between the two pounded breasts. Spread the filling evenly over each breast, leaving about ¼ inch on each side. Roll each breast starting with the thin end first, being careful that the filling does not fall out. If needed, secure the breasts with toothpicks to keep the filling in.

Flour, egg, and panko crust.

Prepare three plates: one with flour, one with a scrambled egg, and one with panko crumbs. Dip each breast in flour, then the beaten egg, and then roll into the panko crumbs to cover. Place each breast on a foil lined baking sheet. Place in the oven for approximately 20-25 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

While the chicken breasts are baking, warm the milk in a small saucepan with the bay leaf. Prepare the gravy by adding two tablespoon of bacon fat to a small sauté pan (if you don’t have enough bacon fat add enough olive oil or butter to make two tablespoons) and heat over medium-low. Add two tablespoon flour whisking constantly and cook until light brown. Add a tablespoon applejack and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute to burn away the alcohol. Slowly pour in the warmed milk and continue to whisk until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and set aside until the breasts are finished baking.

Turn the oven up to a broil. Finish the breasts under the broiler to add color to the breadcrumbs. 2-3 minutes. Be careful that the breadcrumbs don’t burn. Remove the breasts from the oven and slice on the bias. Serve alongside mashed potatoes with the applejack gravy.

Something to look forward to. Chicken Involtini: fried, baked and poached.

Wonderful flavors of orange, rosemary, and red wine are perfect for a weeknight Valentine's day dish.

With so many new kitchen gadgets coming onto the market these days, it’s easy to understand why home cooks feel overwhelmed by the expanding kitchen toolbox on offer from our favorite retailers. We thought it would be nice to take a step back in time by returning to a classic, trusted device we’ve come to love – the pressure cooker. As we write “trusted,” our thoughts turn to our mothers and their fears of exploding lids, shattered glass and hot molten food blown all over ceilings and walls. Some love these things, some hate them, and some don’t know what the hell we’re talking about. Read on, we’ll explain.

Pressure cookers are stove top pans with locking lids on them that use steam and pressure to cook food very, very quickly. Think of it as a sort of precursor to the microwave that hisses but doesn’t emit electromagnetic waves (or reheat coffee). There are so many great uses for the pressure cooker it’s a wonder why there aren’t more of them in U.S. households. But when we bring up the joys of the pressure cooker to our moms, we can see shrieks of terror in their eyes. Modern pressure cookers are infinitely safer than those our grandmothers used to put up preserves. With built-in safety features that prevent explosions even under the most negligent use, these cookers provide the perfect solution to the home cook who wants to prepare slow food quickly. Slow cookers, used for long braising of roasts and all-day simmering of stews, certainly have their time and place in the kitchen, but when you want to cook a stew or beans extra fast there’s only one device that will get the job done and it isn’t your microwave oven.

If you’re in the mood for a hardy yet elegant dish for Valentine’s day, without all the stress, may we suggest that you try epicurious.com’s Lamb and Shitake Mushroom Stew in the pressure cooker. The wonderful thing about this recipe is that you can substitute almost any meat for the lamb (our latest version made use of wild elk). You can use button or portabella mushrooms in place of the shitake if you don’t like the shitake’s slippery texture. It’s even better made a day or two ahead and reheated, served over buttered noodles, orzo, polenta, rice, or simply in a bowl with a nice piece of baguette on the side to sop up the delicious sauce. So there’s no need to stress over what to cook on Monday night’s romantic dinner if you’ve planned ahead, just reheat and serve.

Pressure cookers are safe and easy to use. They’re also energy efficient. So put away any fear of catastrophe inherited from the cooks in your family and invest in a tool you’ll love the very first time you put it to use. You can spend a little or a lot on a good pressure cooker. Our suggestion is to start modestly. Our pressure cooker was a gift, but we suspect it wasn’t a bank breaker. We don’t need a lot of bells and whistles on a pressure cooker – quick pressure release, low pressure settings, etc. We’ve experimented with ours and know how to get the best out of it. With a little time, you’ll get there too.

This Lamb and Shitake Stew recipe makes use of some of our favorite flavors – red wine, rosemary, orange and salty Kalamata olive. Use grass-fed beef if you can’t find good lamb. You’ll still be pleased by the results. In the pressure cooker, all those great flavors come together in minutes. Enjoy!

Pressure Cooked Meat and Mushroom Stew (aka Lamb and Shitake Stew)
Can be doubled and frozen for a quick dinner later in the month

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. lamb shoulder meat or chops, beef, elk or pork roast cut into 3/4-inch cubes
6 ounces fresh mushrooms, shitake (stemmed), button, or portabella mushroom cut into 1/2-inch pieces,
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 3×1/2-inch strips orange peel (orange part only)
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1 cup Chianti, Sangiovese, or other fruity red wine
10 Kalamata olives or other brine-cured black olives, pitted, halved

Heat oil in a pressure cooker pot over high heat. Sprinkle lamb, or whatever meat you are using, with salt and pepper. Add the meat to pot; sauté until light brown, about 5 minutes, you may need to do this in two steps to avoid overcrowding the pan. Add the next 5 ingredients; sauté until onion is golden, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juices and wine; bring to boil. Put the lid on top of the pressure cooker and reduce heat to medium-low for about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat, release the pressure and stir, checking to make sure that the stew does not burn on the bottom of the pan. If the sauce is still too thin then put the lid back on, bring back to pressure and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add olives to stew and season with salt and pepper. (Can be made a day or two ahead. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated. Rewarm over medium heat, adding water by tablespoonfuls to thin sauce if desired.) Serve with orzo, buttered noodles, or rice as the base for the stew.